Binary in an Analog World

Book Meme

Thu, 16 Oct 2008 21:41:42 GMT

Grab the nearest book.
Open the book to page 56.
Find the fifth sentence.
Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.
Don't dig for your favorite book, the cool book, or the intellectual one: pick the CLOSEST.

"Sometimes this is natural and clear; at other times it can cryptic."

The C Programming Language, Second Edition
by Brian W. Kernighan and Dennis M. Ritchie.
Prentice Hall, Inc., 1988.
ISBN 0-13-110362-8

A quick set of updates

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 15:31:22 GMT

* Thanks to a sweet doublet made by theblueleader, I now don't look like a scrub. Photographic evidence:

* I was given the The William Blackfox Website Awards, Best Overall Website for my work on the Atlantian Rapier website.

* Four of my five children are in school this year. My wife starts her celebration soon.

* The banner that lisettelaroux and I made got an squeees, which was the expected outcome.

Sheep, 2.0

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 17:33:50 GMT

Questions from the Pink Leader:

1. Why the bunny?

So, Kynny said my arms should be something that should represent me. I'm very "right or wrong", "yes or no", "black or white". Hense... the colors.

The bunny is in reference to my tons of kids. "You guys are breeding like rabbits." A rampant rabbit was as close as I could get without triggering the "Bimbo Afronte" response.

2. Have you gotten a replacement for the totaled RX-8 yet, and if so what?

Yes. A Volvo C30. Its a two-door sporty hatchback. It has more power and its more comfortable, but not as fun to drive because its front-wheel drive.

3. If Liam had been a girl, what Irish name would she have been given?

Not all of the kids have Irish names.

4. How did you and Carrie Ann meet, and given both of your pasts, what signaled that this time it was the real thing?

A single parent social network. We were both sorta flailing around with little to no social interaction. Its very hard to go out on a date with an infant. It didn't start as dating initially, mostly it was nice to talk to someone that was going through similar issues. Everything felt right very early on, even though we were both trying to not fall for the other, well... we did.

5. If, at the next event, you could only fight one person, who would it be and why?

Laura, after having put in biomechanical arms so she can stand to hold a sword for longer than a few minutes. The last time we fought, I saw the glimmer of the angel of death. Damn our bodies preventing us from doing what we want.

I'd like to fight more of the "old guard". Padraig, Sir Daemon, Niall... etc. I have been able to fight a number of the original rapier folks thanks to Gardiner's Companee. There is so much focus on "win win win" with some the younger crowd that I get bored, regardless of the outcome. The fights are not fun. When I have fought Alan, Jimmy, or Robert, or Gerlach, the fights were fun.

The best fight I've had in quite some time was with Alice at the recent Sapphire Joust. She chose to fight left-handed like me because of my injury. It was the first time I walked away from the field with my opponent by my side, laughing so hard my sides hurt. It was pure bliss.

I want more of that.

my first time acting as a sheep

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 22:37:43 GMT

My first time acting as a sheep:

Here are the rules:
1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me."
2. I will respond by asking you 5 questions of a very personal nature.
3. You will update your LJ with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this and an offer to interview someone else in the post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them 5 questions.

These questions are from Belfebe:
1. How has parenthood changed you?

Just parenthood, not that much. My mom has done home-daycare since I was a toddler. I grew up surrounded by little kids. People always ask "How do you deal with 5 kids?". Except for the cleaning & scheduling, 5 kids is easier than 1. Built-in playmates are a godsend. The great short horde is a "yours, mine, and ours" set. I have two by blood, five by love.

2. What has been the biggest challenge you have ever changed?

Being a single dad. I was the primary care giver for child #4 for multiple years, starting at 1 year old. His mom and I separated not long after his 1 year birthday. I went from being extremely work focused (80+ hours a week), to focusing on very little but my son. I lost over 30 lbs during that period of time. Of course, I've gained nearly all of it back since getting remarried.

Being a single parent is rough. I wouldn't wish it on anyone.

3. If you could go back in time, is there anything you would like to tell your younger self?

In order:
a) Being right isn't always right.
b) Never intermingle friendship and money.
c) Work to live, not live to work.

4. Have you ever considered a career in piracy?

Yes. I was my dad's movie going partner growing up. My mom hates movie theaters. We saw every shoot-em-up, war, spy, drug dealer movie that came out from the time I was 4 until I left for college. On the way home, we always critiqued the movie from a "what did the bad guys do wrong" point of view. We discussed what they could have done better, how they could have avoided getting caught, what the good guys should have picked up on and didn't...

My dad always said I was either going to be a Spook or a member of a Cartel. I've held a security clearance, worked indirectly for multiple spook agencies, and will probably end up doing it again after I get tired of startup life. I like to think of it as I was a spook that got paid better. :)

5. How did you and your wife meet?

My wife is (was?) a widower, I'm a divorcee. We were both primary care givers to our kids. We met through a single parent social network.

What are kids listening to these days?

Mon, 11 Feb 2008 16:20:08 GMT

My children are all taking dance this year, even the boys. They enjoy it so I'm happy. At least that was the case until I sat down and listened to the songs they were dancing to. The song in question is Greased Lightning, from the 70s movie Grease. You know the song, "Why this car is automatic, It's systematic, It's hydromatic, It's Greased Lightning!"

The song starts out alright enough, but mid-way through I look at my wife and ask "Did they just say what I think they said?" Another round through the chorus and I stop the CD so I can rewind and verify that I'm not going crazy.

Check out these choice quotes that my 5 year olds are to sing along with:

"You know that ain't no shit we'll be getting lots of tit In Grease Lightning"

"You are supreme the chicks'll cream for grease lightning"

"With new pistons, plugs, and shocks I can get off my rocks You know that I ain't bragging she's a real pussy wagon Grease lightning"

Fighter Practice Log (10/9)

Sat, 13 Oct 2007 01:30:11 GMT

Its been a few days, so this is from memory, which isn't so good these days.

Alan - My voids to the left are broken. The theory is to move such that they can't hit my right side, yet I make the mistake of raising my arm til its even to my shoulder leaving my whole right side wide open. Alan put me in the position that would make me void left where he would be ready to hit me on my right as soon as I did. I have a nice bright bruise just to the side of my right nipple thanks to him hitting the same spot repeatedly. I had needed to lower my guard some, which has been working to prevent my wrists from tiring out so fast, but I'm not doing it as well when I'm in danger. Need to not roll my arms as much when voiding...

Freddy - He's very out of practice. Except for two shots to my hand, he had little to go on. I kept my range and kept the fight at my tempo, which I need to continue to work on. I threw a number of shots that where too short, where I would graze his doublet but not enough to have positive pressure. I need to work on pushing that last bit if my lunge ends up short.

Alan (C&T) - So last week, I had thought I had improved, my legs didn't have welts from C&T. Yeah no. Alan must have just been working on something else. Its now Friday, and I still have a 1x6" welt (.5" raised) on my left leg from Tuesday. The angle shots really screw me up. I need to work on that quite a bit more. I had a few alright shots, and my C&T calibration seems to be OK. Just the angle shots are killing me. Alan says I need to block less with the sword, using my buckler to block and throwing a counter shot at the same time.

Roland (C&T) - Same basic flaws, the welt on my right leg is from Roland (evil lefty). I noticed that he was throwing combos with quick fluid transition. I tried throwing counters & blocking with the buckler at the same time. It worked OK, but Roland vastly out-skills me with C&T, seemingly only allow me to hit him to allow me to work on my C&T calibration. My range seemed better, but I still had issues with angle shots which Roland is able to throw with ease. Duh, he wasn't knighted for knitting.

Alice - She was still not doing anything that was a threat. Lots of movement, but no real danger. I took 40" single to her 35" & dagger. Twice she closed hard & fast and had decent success. The rest of the time, I kept her at my desired range and could pick her off at will because of it. For a few passes, I worked on blade grabbing which is *very* fun, but put me at risk because I had to be close to her to do it.

Crusades

Sun, 07 Oct 2007 21:34:24 GMT

Kingdom Crusades was a ton of fun. The fighting started with a populace tourney, followed by a champion's tourney, then a melee, then a champions melee, then an open list. I was asked earlier this week to be on the Champion's team, and I was nervous for a while. I've never had others rely on my fighting, so this was a first.

I did my part at the beginning of the populace tourney, holding the lists for a while each time I came up. After my 4th long run, I marshaled as to rest prior to the champion's tourney. We won by a large margin.

Master Kit was asked after the populace tourney to be part of the Champion's team. I had noticed she wasn't being aggressive as she has been recently and she was loosing cause of it. I pumped her up a bit and she dominated her fight in the champion's tourney.

I was last in the champion's tourney, being the deciding fight between winning and tying. I was very hyped up prior to the start, but let people get to my head just before the fight. Note to self, in the future, prior to a big fight I need remove myself from everyone else and focus. "Helping" me while I'm on the line doesn't help. Celric was the only clear person that spoke to me prior to the fight. "Ignore them. Just do what you do and kill him."

The first pass went to my opponent. The second, I hit him a little hard in the head. Atlantian calibration would have my opponent say "Just a little too hard, but good". Eastern calibration had my opponent saying I rocked him and he was concerned he was going to throw up. I felt bad. It wasn't on purpose. The third pass, I was exceedingly careful and laid a *very* light touch to his mask. My opponent asked if it was good or not, and I responded, "Well, its your head." He took it as death.

The melees were fun, being roughly the same scenario that Kynny set forth the previous year. I fought with Gardiner's Company and had a blast. Alan had us holding the right side most of the melee, where we had them pushed back to their res line most of the battle. Half way through the melee, Alan came over to Kit and I and said "Celric has a plan, he needs you two." So over we went. We were to wait for Domynik to punch a hole on the left side and follow their dead back with them and grab the relic on the way back out. It took a bit, but finally they punched a big enough hole. I yelled "Go" and took off running. Kit followed, just a few steps behind me. I beat blades on my way past, grabbed the relic and took off running screaming "Make a spot! Make a spot!" (Couldn't say hole, as much as I really wanted to...) The rest of Gardiners did just that and a hole opened up for me to run back through, allowing me to score the first relic capture. Kenji was able to steal their relic one other time, which pushed us well over the top to win. Gardiners was really able to control our line, spreading out when needed, pushing when told, and holding when we had the objectives we were told. Alan commented afterward that I had done very well on the line, which was nice to hear.

After the melee was the one downside to the event. I got called into Marshals Court, which was more like a Marshals Cluster. I was accused of causing an unsafe environment. We were told prior to the start of the melees that running was allowed, hitting hard was not. Well, I ran to get the relic. A girl from the East claimed that she couldn't throw a shot on me because I was moving so fast, and then tried to draw cut my chest. The draw across the chest was flat, and I yelled "No, flat!" as I ran by. I got called into court by a marshal that claimed to see me ignoring the blow. It was on my chest, and I thought it was flat. In Atlantia, swords have edges, even epees. Multiple eastern marshals (of only one was the marshal who witnessed the act), Kynny, and the KRM from the east talked and I was released.

I had quite a bit of problems with active marshaling. The phrase "Do you want my advice?" was uttered by marshals multiple times this day. I had a mini-rant prior to my champion's fight which was overheard by Richard Fox, a recently returned Atlantian Provost. His response was "When did they start doing this much talking?"

During the melees, I scolded a marshal that was calling my opponent dead after I threw shots that looked good. It is PURELY the responsibility of my opponent to call the quality of shots I throw. I can't stand when people call shots from the sidelines. For years, I wore extremely baggy shirts that would catch blades regularly. More than once I had marshals call me dead for what I knew was my opponent's blade catching in my shirt.

In our game, the fight is based on honor. We are honor bound to make your best call as to if a shot was good or not. When in a tourney or melee, I will not give advice as to if a shot was good or not, nor will I accept others telling me that a shot upon me was good or not. This is a game of honor, and I do my best to not have my honor questioned.

Fighter Practice Log (10/2)

Wed, 03 Oct 2007 21:33:40 GMT

New people - The new people (Joe & Rebecca) were back. I worked with them on basic footwork & bladework. They are coming along pretty good. Master Robert took over for me, which let me get quite a bit more fighting in this week than last week. I'm pretty happy with their progress.

lisettelaroux - Working on her confidence issues still. We fought for a while, working on a number of different things, and she seemed to have fun at the end. Lisette got very frustrated with me at one point because she did what she was told and it didn't work as well as she wanted. attack_laurel made the suggestion to to Lisette to think less, which worked *really* well. Following Sir Corby's suggestions, instead of slowing my fight down, I worked on shots & footwork that I am less comfortable with. Hopefully, this makes it so both Lisette and I gain from the fighting.

Alice - I've noticed that none of her closing shots are actually threatening. Flat out ignoring them works just fine, since I know she is going to do something different when she actually throws a "real" shot. As such, she is using far more energy than I am, and I have the advanced knowledge of where she is likely going to be. I had a hard time pulling my shots because she was closing very fast, far faster than usual tonight. After the forth stiff shot in a row, I sat myself, even though she wasn't concerned at all. I don't like hitting hard, even if it didn't hurt & was an accident.

rolanddem - I tried to not let him control the range & tempo, which worked out better than it had in the past. He was using his monster sword, which required massive amounts of work on my part when using my 40". I switched to my 30 and was able to control his sword better. I need to work on owning the fight with Roland. When I take tempo & control range, it works FAR better. Easier said than done, and I'm willing to bet he knows most all of my tells by now...

Alan - Ah, Alan. We had the floor to ourselves, so I tried moving. As much as I could, I didn't fight linearly. I had a number of nice off angle shots, including a favorite of Alan's, the rising cross shot while dropping back. My "line" defense is decent. My linear shots are pretty accurate. However, Alan won't let me fight there. So, I need to continue working on non-linear fighting.

Re-enactors are weird

Sun, 30 Sep 2007 17:04:01 GMT

I have been quite sick for the last few days. I left work early on Thursday with a 103 degree fever. Of course, it has rotated through the rest of the family since then, which made this weekend oh so awesome. I've been unable to sleep much, rotating through the chills & then drenched in sweat and back for two days does that to ya. I was not able to concentrate for that long, so working on the site I promised rolanddem a while ago is out, and so is trying to teach myself to sew. (Kinda hard to sew if you soak the fabric in the process)

But I can browse the web. Its better than watching the infomercials that are on every channel at 3:37 in the morning.

I started out with reading up on Walsingham, since the book pinkleader gave me is interesting, but is rather dry. (Best taken in short stints... and not while sick, hard to concentrate) Well, that lead me to the Gunpowder Plot Society where I read more about Guy Fawkes. Which, btw, is a rather interesting plot that might have almost worked. The primary sources available on the GPS site discussing the investigation & interrogation of Fawkes is pretty interesting...

Anyways, that lead me to the ECW, which lead me to the ECW re-enactors in the states.

That looked kinda interesting. So, I went about reading on one of the sites about how to become a musketeer. And of course, that is where I came across this:

"buy your own so that you can spend those cold winter evenings when there aren't any battles polishing and rubbing down your barrel, lubricating your ramrod and waxing your butt"

Yes, re-enactors are weird.

Fighter Practice Log (9/25)

Wed, 26 Sep 2007 04:11:48 GMT

Today, we had two new people come to practice. I worked with them for a while on the basics. We've had a ton of new people coming to practice lately. Thats great, I'm glad to have new blood. More people to fight the better. Only downside is I don't get to fight as much as I would like. This week, I got in two fights.

My first fight was with Sir Vlad, who has a great control of range. I was alright if I could keep him at *my* preferred range, but he's pretty good at putting me in position to make it hard to keep that up. He's not a knight for being good at knitting, thats for sure. :)

My second fight was Cut & Thrust with Master Alan. We fought for what seemed like a half hour, but was probably much less time. I was completely exhausted after fighting him. I worked *way* harder fighting him than I have in quite some time. I did quite a bit better than last time, but I still have quite a ways to go.

Two things I need to do:
1) I need to make a mask insert similar to Jimmy's so I can fight C&T before geting a helm.
2) I need to start some pell work. My muscles are seriously not used to the motions (both with good form, and my very poor form).

Sun, 16 Sep 2007 13:52:31 GMT

Three years ago, Chalice of the Sun God was my first event, if you exclude my first Pennsic. This event has been at the same site for the last three years. The last two years were done as a bear-pit. Honestly, I was looking for that Ponte Alto typical "fight til ya drop" format, but Geoffrey ap Clywd decided on a triple elimination tourney.

Everyone starts with single sword. After your first loss, you add a defensive secondary. After your second loss, you replace your defensive secondary with an offensive secondary. After your third loss, you were removed from the tourney.

Connor Sinclair - Both had single rapier. I had a nice touch to his chest, and about a second after it landed, took a flat snap to the head. Connor has been doing armoured and cut & thrust for a while, so it didn't surprise me too much. Honestly, I'm glad he made his mistake on me than on one of the newer fighters. It was a one time screw up, but it still made my ears ring.

Daniel - Me single, Daniel defensive. He's still learning quite a bit. The fight took a while, but I properly held my distance, waited until I had the shot and took it.

Flaithri - Both Single. Another fight that took quite some time. We did pickups prior to the tourney. I came in confident and came out with a loss. We both kept range well, and the fight took long enough that my wrist started giving me problems. Flaithri had put out bait for an openning. I thought I could handle his known response and take the hole in the process and end it before I had to stop because of my wrists. I was wrong.

Thomas - Me, single and defensive. Thomas, single and offensive. I went into teaching mode, I slowed down, I opened up my chest and almost said "Hey, here is my opening..." I realized my mistake about a half-second before getting thunked in the opening I gave him. Oops. My mistake and he took advantage of it.

Dominyk - Me, single and offensive. Dominyk, single and defensive. We had not fought in nearly a year (Holiday Faire, if I remember correctly). He was by far the fastest fighter that I had faced. Again, another longish fight. We both had a large number of shots that had our point control been better, the other would have been dead. By the end of the fight I was having wrist issues again. Dominyk threw a rather nice shot that I didn't void away enough to give him the win.

I did pickups afterward, but I don't remember them. I still need to pickup a notebook to put in my haversack.

On becoming a Free Scholar

Mon, 10 Sep 2007 04:00:00 GMT

I sat on the eve of becoming a Free Scholar nervous as I have been in quite some time. I was to kneel in front of a group that I have looked up to for some time, and for them to tell me that I was to become a free scholar. attack_laurel told me that I was already there, and that I should relax and enjoy the day. Easier said than done.

kpyke was my original teacher in the SCA, and my primary sponsor. He started off by saying that one of my sponsors, Sir Christian was unable to attend, but passed this message: "I know the quality of the candidate, and I need no proxy." It was touching that my third sponsor was ballistabob. He was the first person outside our local group that commented on my fighting, presenting me with my first token in the society.

There were many fights. I have notes from the fights that I took from that day, but I think I will keep those to myself. Many people said things ... things that touched me deeply.

Isobel's ... err ... my scarf is sitting atop my box of memories. I'm floored that she gave it to me. I will wear her scarf with pride, honor, and dignity. Many thanks to those that made the day what it was, a truly great day.

Coronation

Mon, 03 Sep 2007 17:26:16 GMT

This weekend was the coronation of Logan and Rowan. I was sans children, which allowed me to get more fighting in than I have in quite some time. gabrell received his Queen's award of Courtesy, which put many people to tears. Many other deserving people received awards as well. Skorri has photographic proof that I was there. The photograph shows lisettelaroux looking spiffy dressed as a boy, and me looking like a bum. But my shoes are correct. :)

- Percy
Fighting Percy felt similar to fighting Alan except Percy moved less. The first time I met Percy, he and Alan took me aside and worked with me a bit. He told me his weakness, which was "Move right, throw a rising shot". Well, I remembered that. We fought for about 30 seconds, I took a deep lunge to the right and threw a rising shot and thunked him on the top of his head. I wanted to fight him more, but it was the first of many fights in the "pickups where we keep score" tourney, so we went on to fight others. I should have sought him out again but by the time I got the chance, he had to go off to handle "church business".

- Dante
Dante was a rather fun fight. We went back and forth a number of times taking each others blade. I took the first kill, he took the next two. I won the first by keeping my range and picking smart shots. The second and third, I let Dante come in and he stabbed me with his dagger. I have got so focused using my dagger as defensive tool that I forget that I can stab people with it too. Next time I need to keep my range better.

- Baron Jean Claude
We went best of three, single sword (I think). I was leading with my head, and he took advantage of it. We fought more during the melees later, and I didn't make that mistake anymore.

- Baroness Alyna
We fought sword and dagger, doing best of three passes. It was our first time fighting, though I have seen her fight before. She is the lady that made the fighting cloak I was awarded at Sapphire. She didn't seem as aggressive as I have seen her in the past. I was able to pull her blade offline with my dagger and keep it there, allowing me quite a bit of time to take advantage of the opening.

- David (the vegan?)
This fight took *way* longer than it should have. It was *way* longer than any of my fights with the provosts. He kept doing things that shouldn't have worked but were threatening enough that I needed to deal with it. I won eventually, but was extremely tired afterwards. It took upwards of 15 minutes for 3 passes. Keep him out of his range and shoot for the hands & arms since they are so much closer.

- Chris Cunning
Chris says we fought, I remember trying to get pickups out of him after it was all done, but he was busy doing "church" things. I wish I could remember the fight though. Grr. Again, need to get another notebook.

- Some Young Guy with an ill fitting mask
I fought some guy who I can't remember their name. The fight was a shocker. I threw a shot to his gorget, hit nicely, but he kept coming hard, so I quickly lifted my blade up so he didn't impale himself on my sword. In the process, my tip caught under his mask and lifted it off his head. Having my tip less than an inch from his face while he was coming at me hard was a shocker to say the least. We fought again after his mask was adjusted by the marshal, but I was super careful after that with him, and chose to drawcut under his arm for the win.

- Celric
I didn't get to fight Celric during the Tourney, but I did fight him on Sunday. I have not fought case in a very long time. My dagger tip came off during the melees on Saturday, and I forgot to bring tape to fix it. During the melees on Sunday, I brought case. Ugh, I had forgot how SLOW an offhand sword is compared to dagger. Much of my defense went out the window by fighting case. All but twice when we met up, Celric would easily kill me and about a second later my offhand sword would be upon his to parry it. After our break, I took out buckler and it wasn't anywhere near as bad. I'll have to remember that in the future. I also need to spend time at practice with case, as there are occasions where it is useful.

I know I fought others, but I don't remember their names (and at this point, probably not the fights). I really need to start with my notebook again, as that was quite useful.

Fighter Practice Log (8/28)

Thu, 30 Aug 2007 03:44:00 GMT

A while ago, I told myself I would write comments about every fight I ever fight. I was doing it in a notebook, which fell apart. (Need to get a new one). Then I did it online on my personal site, but I fell out of the habit. So... I will try and start logging my fights here.

- Master Alan, single

I can't tell if Alan is in teaching mode or not. He can still whip up on me on demand, but at various points during the fight I feel I complete control, knowing where he is going to be going, how he is going to throw the next shot, and appropriately attack in his tempo. This might go on for two or three passes, then I get hit with something that I couldn't explain even if I wanted to. Then the next pass, I feel as if I am in control again.

It was as if he was guiding me to different attacks, and ever so often bringing out the "I'm still in control, even if I let you hit me, don't forget that." smacks to the head.

Things learned: I need to work on my point control more. My inside line is well defined, same with my right line. My left line needs more attention when I don't have a dagger in that hand. Fighting with something other than sword and dagger all the time might help there. :)

- Master Kit, sword & dagger

theblueleader is progressing by leaps and bounds. About 4 months ago, I could trap her sword with my dagger, stay at my desired range and take 4 or 5 shots at will until one connected. Now, she is very aggressive in closing. She is getting much better at taking my sword offline prior to coming in, but she's still vulnerable to letting me completely control her sword in the process.

Even her "practice garb" (except for the "normal" pants) is quite nice. One day... (yes I know, she's been doing this for quite a bit longer than I have, and isn't a Laurel for nothing, but that doesn't mean I can't be both envious and want to be dressed like that already... Yes, attack_laurel, I know ... small steps are good steps ... at least my shoes are OK now. :D )

Anyways, Kynny pointed out to her that my inside line is pretty much locked down, and that I have an opening that she should try for, throwing a shot at my left shoulder, extending and twisting towards the shot while doing it. We fought another 4 or 5 passes and I did notice the opening, and while I was able to defend her attacks, its because I knew she was throwing the shot well in advance (like, because it was what she was just told to do... duh) Yep. Big hole. Bladye (sp?) from the West Kingdom threw the same shot on me twice at Pennsic, killing me both times. Yep. Big hole. Need to work on that.

Things learned: Big hole pointed out by Kynny. Need to work on that one.

- Master Robert, single

We didn't do many passes, due to Robert's hand hurting from working at the farm. While I don't remember much of it, I do remember in-fighting and getting thunked when I didn't think it was possible. Robert explained it when it happened, and while I had been told before, it was another refresher since nobody else at the practice seems to do it.

Things learned: When in-fighting, and my opponent pulls his blade way behind him, MOVE. Get out of dodge. Fast, and throw something in the process. Life is gonna suck otherwise.

- Giacomo, my 40 vs his 30.

Ugh. Prior to Pennsic, Jimmy told me that I had the potential to be not just good, but great. However, it would take breaking me first. I made the mistake of saying "OK, its after Pennsic... so, you gonna break me now?"

Note to self, that was dumb.

He made me work, constantly. He never stopped moving, never letting me "know" his range, and never giving me an opportunity to get "set" like I have become accustomed to. Any shot I threw got pushed, beat, or parried and then Jimmy was face to face with me. I had previously thought my inside fighting tactics were not awful, but every time he came in, I couldn't help but hunch up, tighten my muscles and prepare for the worse. Yes, Jimmy is a swat cop, so he's got professional training at this sort of thing, but no I should be able to do *something*, even if that means run away and keep him at my range.

Of course, I did get "the worse", once. Jimmy had a rather stout draw cut under my left armpit which was followed by a thrust back into the armpit. It would have been alright, had the tip not come off during the draw cut. This is my second time being hit with an untipped sword, and I must say... I'm rather glad I was wearing armor at the time.

Things learned: I need to work on continuing with multiple intentions. I normally have 2 or 3 in my head at any given time that I'd like to continue through, but I need to be able to just not stop. Maybe I can find someone to do the parry-riposte drills I did as a kid. Parry, riposte, Parry, disengage, attack... over and over and over. Not a set order, but just simple basic techniques over and over. Never lunge, never actually hit your partner, just work on basic techniques for 10 to 15 minutes. When I was a kid, we did this without jackets or masks, it was part of our warmup drills. Freddy and I did this at my first university for 10 minutes, prior to the first rapier class, while we just talked.

I also need to work on keeping MY range. Jimmy kept moving around me, coming in and out and in and out, and ever so often would leap inside. Had I been more active with keeping MY desired range, I would have (in theory) been able to keep him away and controlled the fight more.

7 positive things

Thu, 12 Jul 2007 03:06:44 GMT

I realized that my previous 7 things were all negative. So, I'm going to try again, this time with all positive things.

1) I am a Pokemon Master Trainer (tm). Seriously, I worked for Nintendo & WoTC for the Pokemon World Tour. In the process, I stomped on little kids dreams (We were not supposed to loose. I've had young adults come up and tell me I crushed their dreams when they were a kid, including the intern at work), I managed a rotating staff of (usually) hot models, I drove the pika-beetle, and I wore the Pikachu suit (once). Oh, and flew around the country playing video games & card games for a living. What was that mom? Playing nintendo would never amount to anything?

2) I built my first car, a "Caswell Special Construct Dune Buggy", if you ask the state of Virginia. My dad decided that the best way for me to have the proper love for cars was to build my first one. It took 3 years, and thousands of hours of work. No doors, no windshield, very little floor, gigantic motor. It was a sand rail that was street legal, and I terrorized Fairfax in it for 3 years.

3) I have only applied for 2 jobs in my life. I've had many others, but they came to me, not the other way around. On top of that, I've only been turned down three times. Twice because they thought I would be bored and would quit. That other one was because they couldn't afford my salary requirements.

4) I have been propositioned by 4 different "professional" women, but not for money. Two models, one stripper, and one hooker. They thought I was rich & powerful and could make them a star. Unfortunately, I'm not rich or powerful. I turned them all down, even the one that got access to my hotel room and was naked on my bed waiting for me to come back to my room.

5) I am published author and a professional speaker, with less than stellar written & vocabulary skills.

6) My aggression is tied to my body temperature. When I'm cold, I become passive. When I'm hot, I become aggressive. My coworkers have only just now realized this, well I guess I told them, but they want to get both a meat locker and a human sized oven, so they can adjust my attitude as the situation may require.

7) I am responsible for more than 90% of intrusion detection rules in use around the globe today. As such, the majority of attacks caught by IDSs are caught in part because of me.

7 things

Wed, 11 Jul 2007 19:52:10 GMT

1) I'm OCD. But only on a few things (so far, though more show up as I get older). One of them being software. I am *constantly* tweaking, twiddling, and toying with whatever software I'm writing at the moment. It can always be smaller, faster, better ... I have the technology, I can rebuild it. At least, thats what I keep telling myself.

2) I don't ever finish anything. Outside of school work, I think I've only "finished" 3 projects in my entire life. I either get bored before its done or I constantly fiddle with it. (See #1).

3) I don't say the right thing, like... ever. I'm regularly asked "Why are you being quiet?" Its not that I don't have things to say, its that I know I'll say the wrong thing. Nearly everything that comes out of my mouth is said wrong. I end up with my proverbial foot in my mouth often. I'm trying to get over it by thinking out every word I say prior to saying it, as kpyke can agree, its not working.

4) Every girl I've every dated, I wooed online. All of them. I've met some online, and others I knew in person prior to said wooing, but the wooing only happens behind a keyboard. I've got mad babe wooing skills on the keyboard, and none what so ever in person.

5) My parents thought I might be gay until I brought home the girl that was to be my first wife. It was after I asked her to marry me. Reason? My little sister started "dating" at 6. I was 11. My parents teased her to no end. I chose to never bring home girls because of it.

6) I am completely clueless about people. (Yes, you already knew that, but its more in depth than you think!) Once, I had a girl follow me around in awe. She tried repeatedly to get my phone number, to ask me out, basically anything to get me to be interested in her. It wasn't that there was anything wrong with her, (smart, funny, hot, short, redhead... all great things...), I was just oblivious. Completely. My friends teased me for years for that. I've tried being nice when explaining things to people, only to have them in tears after only a few minutes. Things I think will be nice are not. Things I think will be harsh ... are also not. I just don't get it. I'd give up, but I'd probably upset more people than I already do.

7) I'm *VERY* lazy. The reason I got into software development is that I was that I found I was very good at taking tasks that took too much of my time and automating them such that I never had to do them again. I will much rather spend 2 weeks automating a task and never doing it again, than taking 5 minutes to do that task everyday. It bothers me to no end that people don't get automation. Why work, when you can get something else to work for you? Really? Now if I can only write some software to wash laundry and do the dishes, I'd be set.

Websites

Tue, 26 Jun 2007 02:16:17 GMT

Recently, I applied for the webmaster position for the Kingdom of Atlantia. I was turned down, only to find out that my resume & selected works didn't get forwarded as they were supposed to. Slightly annoying, but oh well.

I just finished the simplification of the Atlantian Rapier Marshal site. Here are a few screenshots up of sites that I maintain on a semi-regular basis just in case someone askes again in the future.

Atlantia's Deputy Earl Marshal for Rapier Combat. Simple, clean, professional layout for information about rapier fighting in the Kingdom of Atlantia.

Cut & Thrust is a semi-new form of rapier fighting in the SCA. kpyke and I went through rules for cut & thrust in the various kingdoms in order to kick our kingdom in gear to allow cut & thrust. Of course, now that it is allowed, only 5 or 6 guys are doing it. Oh well, I still maintain the site, since rule differences between the various kingdoms in the SCA are pretty interesting.

The office of the Newbie. The person in charge of making sure newcomers have what they need is the office of the Chatelaine. The "welcome to atlantia" site was... awful. Up until about 2 months ago, I could never get an answer as to if I was allowed to use pictures on this site. Now that I have approval, I need to redesign the site.

In my "other" life, I maintain the website for Shmoocon, an hacker con in DC. My ticket purchasing system processed nearly $100k worth of ticket sales in a total of 3 days worth of sales.

Sapphire Joust VIII

Mon, 28 May 2007 17:35:29 GMT

Only recently have I started having fun again whilst fighting. I was so focused on getting better, that I forgot that this is supposed to be fun. I was bothered that my fighting was lacking. I was bothered that my kit was far from correct. I was bothered that I had to choose between family and fighting, I couldn't have both.

This weekend, I was able to correct that.

I'm not embarrassed by my kit anymore. There is still much to be done, but I'm heading in the right direction. If all goes to plan, I should look mostly spiffy for nearly all of Pennsic.

My fighting has advanced by quite a bit. Thanks to studying Fabris, combined with added comprehension of the techniques as I read them from attack_laurel, kpyke, rolanddem, and Master Alan, I have been able to gain a much more detailed understanding of issues I had previously been struggling with.

This weekend allowed me to spend time with my family in addition to fighting. I had to leave prior to court on Sunday as Liam had a fever. But prior to that, I was able to get in all the fighting I wanted, spend time with my friends, and still talk with my wife, hang out with my kids, and wander around site for hours with Liam strapped to my back.

Oh, and I actually smiled a ton. A *TON*. On and off the field. It must have shown, as a number of people commented on it this weekend.

My performance on Sunday was something to write home about. I made it to the finals in the Arte of Defense tourney, in the process winning both Baron Alejandro's Scholar Prize (the highest placing scholar in the tourney) and the prize for the most accurate representation of a period master. Baron Alejandro had previously stated that if you bested him and was the highest placing scholar, he would make a donation in your name to the charity of your choice. Even though I did not best him, he still offered the prize to me. Since I don't have a charity in mind, I am deferring the choice to my Peer. (Hint, attack_laurel, let me know your choice, so I can let Alejandro know)

My kit, as of this weekend (Note, no doublet, as it was way too hot for that, and its borrowed for the moment anyways)

(Picture © Laura Martinez)

Registering Arms

Thu, 10 May 2007 20:06:25 GMT

At this past "Night on the Town", I was raised to the rank of nobility by Val & Arielle. I had not yet registered my name and arms. During kpyke's reading of my scroll, when he got to the part where they listed off the recipeints arms, he gave the obligitory pause and the "This should be done by now..." look.

I had already been working on what I wanted for arms, and I had long since chosen my name. Of course, I had to get it past the heralds. While they were helpful, they required modification to my name. There were two problems.

1) Whilst there is "Morray", and "Murry", "Murraf" (pronounced the same as "murray"); "Murray" is not acceptable until 50ish years outside of the acceptable range.

2) "Brian McRay", already registered, is too close to "Brian Murray" in sound. As such, if I wanted to keep the "Murray" sound, I'd have to add "of" or "de".

So, hense forth, if the heralds win, in 9 months, I might be known as Brian de Morray, aka "The Eel". (Thanks Master Robert)

While I was at it, I went through the process of registering arms. Following kpyke's suggestion, I chose to make my arms register say something about myself. As my current blog subtitle-suggests, I am fairly inflexible about many things. At work, they claim I am merely a big state machine. I see only black and white, right and wrong. These make up the the chosen colors. We have 5 kids in my family. My wive drives a bus. She wants at least one more kid. 6 kids is a ton by todays standards.

I put those two things together, and I have my arms: Quarterly sable and argent, a coney rampent counterchanged.

On selfishness

Tue, 10 Apr 2007 03:18:59 GMT

I have spent a decent chunk of time and energy to make the SCA around me a better place. I might have succeeded at that. I have tried, and others have smiled. That is about all I can ask.

Unfortunately, I've done so to the detriment of my own experience. My fighting has gone downhill. I regret going to some events. I don't spend as much time with my family as I would like at events. Heck, this Saturday, I only saw my kids at court.

I applied to be the kingdom webmaster, but frankly, I think it might be a good thing that I was not chosen. I would have done a good job. I would have made a positive difference. But I would have been very stressed at a number of things that don't really matter.

I need to figure out how to balance my own needs and desires with helping others to experience "the dream." I have this gigantic list of people that I want to be like, but I seem to fall short in so many ways.

Maybe I need to figure out what I want out of the SCA before I burn out before I truly get started.

On living in a box

Wed, 14 Mar 2007 05:26:31 GMT

This evening, kpyke put me in a box. Being put in a box served to make tonights practice one of the most frustrating that I have ever had. He made a tape square on the floor, and I was instructed to keep one foot in the box at all times. My box was a literal box, however it was just a 4' square box made out of tape on the floor.

I was to fight, always keeping one foot in the box. This limitation served annoying, but I was still able to move enough such that it didn't provide the benifit they were looking to find. They picked up on this, and decided to shrink the box from 4' square to 1' square, such that any forward/backward motion would be extremely limited.

This proved to be very frustrating. Many of my "tools" in my "toolkit" were taken away by this limitation. I was ran around the box (hah, "ran") for what felt like forever. It was very physically and mentally exhausting. A number of bad habits that others have hinted at were put on center stage, as without all of my other motion, the little issues were much easier to see.

I was hurting, embarrassed, frustrated, tired, and a whole slew of other descriptive terms. I kept going, because I knew I needed it. At one point when I was extremely frustrated, I looked up and saw attack_laurel giving me the thumbs up sign. It was as if she said "We've all been here, you're doing great, it will get better, I promise!" It helped to see a smiling face giving me encouragement, as much as I try to pretend I don't need it. I continued to press on, even after I hit the point of exhaustion. It wasn't until I could hold my sword no longer that I stopped.

I didn't speak for quite some time after stopping. I was trying to remember everything that happened. I was trying to catch my breath. I was trying to get over my feeling of complete embarrassment.

It is one thing to have flaws. It is another to be center stage having your flaws pointed out to you. It is yet another thing to not be able to immediately fix your flaws once they are pointed out and have the flaws be actively exploited.

The box is a tool. It won't break me. I will continue to stay in my box, forcing myself to think inside the box, until such time as I'm told I don't need to box any longer.

On Humility

Wed, 07 Mar 2007 05:38:20 GMT

Sir Christian posed a question "What role does Humility play in rapier?"

I have spend a good while thinking about knightly virtues. As while I am a protégé, I personally tend to look upon my relationship with attack_laurel as a squire does to a knight. Many of the same ideals, methods, and guidance that a knight in our society provides to their squire is in line with what attack_laurel provides me. She doesn't beat me with a stick when I screw up though. (As much as I might need it, says my wife.) As such, I already had developed my personal understanding of humility.

St. Bernard defines humility as "A virtue by which a man knowing himself as he truly is, abases himself." As I understand it, "abase" as used is groveling or a sense of inferiority. My understanding of humility is that no man knows everything. A translation of a phrase from Pirchei Avot, a several thousand year old collection of statements on how best to live our lives, defines the idea well.

"Who is wise? One who learns from all people."

In every fight, there is something that can be learned. Even if you dominate those you fought on any given day, the you should learn during those fights. When teaching a new fighter, you should learn during the teaching.

My father taught me at something at a young age, "The moment you think you can learn no more, you can learn no more."

On becoming a rapier marshall

Fri, 23 Feb 2007 04:20:48 GMT

When I started in the SCA, I saw a number of issues with marshalls. Our game is played such that the marshalls make sure we are safe. That is it. When it comes down to it, the job itself isn't hard. Why so many people have a hard time with it, I will never understand.

I promised myself that I would have nothing to do with becoming a marshall until I was a force to be dealt with on the field. I didn't want to have people question my actions or judgment while I was a marshall. Even though I am not be a rapier god of death, I finally decided that enough was enough. Instead of bitching at poor marshalls, I would become a marshall and not be a jackass in the process.

Master Robert has a statement he makes about two primary laws of Atlantian rapier:
- don't be stupid (usually referring to tactics, etc.)
- don't be a dick (referring to honor and courtesy)

In addition, I was given one other primary thing to think about. While I'm sure Master Robert believes it as well, I wouldn't presume to state he said it.

"Your sword is yours. Anything that happens with your sword is YOUR fault. If something bad might happen with your sword, it is your responsibility to fix it."

These work well. I try very hard to abide by these simple tenets in my fighting. Now that my warrant came through, I will be applying the same to marshaling.

- don't be stupid
- don't be a dick
- don't be unsafe

On becoming a protégé

Sun, 18 Feb 2007 08:43:15 GMT

Some time ago, I protégéd to attack_laurel. We had been friends for quite some time. In the last year and a half, we started talking about things outside of rapier.

Some time ago, I started voicing displeasure with how things were done inside the SCA. Note, I was quiet in my displeasure, keeping my rants directed at friends in a private setting. In my other life, I'm slightly OCD. Check that, I'm very OCD on a limited set of topics. Many things inside the SCA, while done on a volunteer basis and should be thanked for the effort, are done poorly. Unfortunately, many of those things aggravate the hell out of me. I wanted to help, but I didn't know where to start.

Well... attack_laurel started pointing me towards where I could help. In areas where she didn't have suggestions to how I could help, she provided guidance as to how I should go about communicating my concerns to those that could fix them. Its not that I didn't know what to say, I don't always know how to say it. This is a common theme in my life, causing issues with my exwife and at work. attack_laurel and I started talking over many issues, in and out of the SCA, and she was providing guidance that I could understand and apply.

Also, in the midst of many serious topics, much fun stuff occurred. My wife and I went to last years 12th Night, and sat with Bob and attack_laurel, which was very relaxing. I was invited out to Mousehole, which was a blast. We had many amusing conversations, and even some shared eye rolling upon some stupidity that occurred at fighter practice. Heck, even commentary at Pennsic in regards to the Skull Spike buckler was amusing.

This past September (9/19/2006, this I remember...), she asked if I was interested in being her protégé. I had many questions and concerns which we discussed for quite some time. I have a small army, and as such my "SCA time" can be rather limited at times. In addition, I was concerned that I would reflect badly upon her. My biggest fear growing up was that I would reflect badly upon my father. Upon discussing this with kpyke and my wife, both said that having that concern showed to them that it really was not an issue. She addressed all of my concerns, even complimenting me in the process. (She's good like that.)

Upon discussing it with my wife, we both came to the conclusion that of anyone that I would protégé to, attack_laurel is probably the best fit. Our personality is very similar; with similar quirks, flaws, and qualities. My wife and I talked about it for quite some time, as its not something I would want to do without my wife's backing.

In late October / early November, I accepted, and we started the Protégé/Peer relationship. To most ends, not much has actually changed, except I now have a primary person to go to when I have issues, and she has a primary person to focus her teaching on. The actual interaction hasn't changed much. We have not defined how everything is going to work just yet, but that is just fine. We have time. *grin*