Talons and Feathers

Feeling a bit better

2012-02-01T12:11:00.000-10:00

Fencing was certainly better last night, though I still managed to over do it. I was able to fence 4 or 5 people and did quite well against them. I am working on recognizing patterns and reactions.

I noticed it specifically with one fencer. After a few direct attacks that ended with a huge parry riposte against me, I figured out the a feint disengage worked. He is a lefty and I am a righty, so I went for his quarte, inside and drew the parry and then disengaged nearly a full circle to get him on the chest. I was down 3-1 or 3-0, but managed to win the bout with 5-4.

Also mobility and endurance really helped, although I was at the end of my endurance nearly. Need to work further on that. Speaking of, now to go walking.

Motivation

2012-01-31T16:30:00.000-10:00

Ah, motivation...

Fencing has been pretty slow recently, we had a few traveling fencers grace us with their presence. That was fun, and challenging. People here are getting better, or maybe I am sliding back into the morass of sloppy fencing. I hope it is the former.

I have decided that I am not going to try to put anyone through exercises and drills. I would rather not have to restart a dozen times with late-comers, but they don't bother me as much as those who prefer to stab over learning how to stab... A fine line I know. As such I have only really taken a few beginners through basic footwork and swordwork, otherwise I am pretty demotivated.

I fence but I feel lethargic, it is usually after sitting in a chair for nearly 8 hours so that is part of the problem. I also have been slacking on running and exercising outside of fencing, and it shows. Last week when there was only one strip and I was working on my own, I managed to overdo it. Go figure. I have a chance, possibly, to go to San Jose at the end of march. I know there are plenty of Salles and clubs in the area, and possibly a tournament. Of course I will have to carefully plan so that I can attend the conference, write up a report, and get a bit of fencing in, but I want to be in good shape so that those with many fencers to fence won't just run circles around me, or some similar idea in fencing.

So, as a project outside of work and connected with fencing, I have decided to try and construct a wireless fencing system. Being a trained computer engineer with plenty of ready-to-use-materials within reach from the amazing DIY-movement that started after I graduated from college, it seems that this could be done quite cheaply and robustly. I am also looking at crowd-funding, a project of about $500, which at least could be reached by asking family and friends, and possibly a few fencers.

A project like this will need special attention that I crave to apply but get petrified trying to think of all the solutions to all of the problems at once. So I have broken it down into a few larger phases: Planning, Advertising, Designing, Building and Testing. Of course all of these are subjective large containers, but right now I am looking at launching the project on March 9th and ending a month later. I think 500 dollars is the smallest project I have seen on sites like kickstarter.com or rockethub.com. I think the next thing is to come up with how to do a video. Just thinking now of doing either a funny video using real people and explaining the "perils" of the floor cords and reels, or animate it somehow. Thoughts and ideas are welcome.

So anyway... ideas, ideas...

Footwork for the Competitive Fencer

2011-11-16T13:00:00.000-10:00

The quality of a building's foundation can be the deciding factor in whether or not it crumbles or collapses during a catastrophic event. It also dictates how long it will survive the longer term shifts in the surrounding earth.

Footwork, the action of the feet and legs of the fencer, is the foundation to one's fencing. Bad footwork can lead to collapse under an onslaught by the opponent, tripping and meeting the floor. It also steals away opportunities to attack, fleeing backwards without good change of direction skills could mean many open targets that just have to be ignored. And finally, bad footwork can cause injury over time, knee, ankle, or foot problems that may permanently take one out of the game.

Good footwork will help our fencing group. Right now in combination with poor judgement of distance, it is leading to hard hits, missed opportunities and sloppy fencing. As much as I would like to tease the Epeeists in our group about being the problem, it isn't their fault. It is the lack of caring. Who cares what the feet are doing as long as you get the clashing of swords and the satisfying 'beeeeep' of an ambiguous point scored?

But for those who actually want to progress in their fencing, and maybe even compete at a level they are happy with, there is much to practice to get a solid and flexible foundation. Running stairs, squats, calf-raises, leg-press, the list of exercises to train for strength and explosiveness in footwork goes on, so does agility training. I will not cover those as they are not specific to fencing and can be researched thoroughly. I might do a post on that later.

First, basic footwork, just back and forth. This is to keep smooth, correct footwork, not a race to how many lengths of the strip or gym can be done. Take the time to pause and adjust what falls out of form. The feet should be mostly 90 degrees with the heels in-line, the front toe pointing straight down the strip. The heels should be approximately directly under the shoulders. Keep the knees bent and let them be the shock-absorption between feet and hips. They should, at most, be directly over the toes, any further over and long-term injuries are possible. The hips should be rotated to allow the torso to be at the desired angle with the strip. And finally the back should be as though sitting in a chair, not hunched forward. I only mention the back because it will cause over-balance if in a weird position. Do 60 to 70 meters of this slow, smooth, checking footwork in each direction. Try to keep the head and shoulders level, not bobbing up and down.

Now do patterns. 2-1, 3-1, 4-1, 2-2, and so-on, mix it up. The focus of this practice is not just the patterns, but also the change of direction, known in fencing circles as COD. COD is extremely important in throwing off an opponent. Another thing to think about is shifting tempos. Try slow, slow, fast for a retreat, advance, advance and many others. This footwork should mostly be done without pauses, not because pauses are not important, but because pauses should be controlled movements, or lack there of, be aware of them and if unintentional then it needs to be remove. Standing still without realizing you are doing that will quickly lead to a situation that could have been avoided. But a pause can also be used to great effect as a lure for your opponent.

After getting more comfortable with this then start fencing ghosts, add in lunges and parries. At first go slow working on form and warming-up. Then start to pick up speed and explosiveness. Use your mobility to its greatest effect.

Lunges are an important part of footwork. A lunge of the correct distance will help to bring the point on target, but a sloppy lunge will definitely allow the opponent a better opportunity. A good lunge is a combination of two things: A push by the back leg and a kick by the front leg. The kick gets the front foot to where it needs to be for the lunge and the push powers the whole thing. One should end up with the back leg straight and the front lower leg 90 degrees with the floor. The knee too far over the toe means it is harder to get out of the lunge while putting strain on the knee joint. And too far behind the ankle can mean a collapse inward that can cause knee cap problems. To get out a lunge backwards the back leg needs to pull and flex. If it does not flex then it causes the fencer to stand up, effectively trapping the fencers for a few precious moments while they get their fencing form back.

Partner exercises should be fun and start getting you in the mind of distance, but that is for a later blog entry. They way of being a good partner is to give feedback on what you observe, positive criticism would be good, so that both of you can improve. A few different ideas for exercises:

Step for step. Match footwork with your partner as they lead the exercise. Watch carefully their feet at first, but when comfortable you should be able to see the whole body including the feet without directly staring at any one piece. After a few minutes stop and trade feedback, then switch roles.
One partner comes on-guard and starts to do advances and then retreats, about 10 each. The other partner walks holding their foil at eye height. Watch for bobbing or rocking. Give feedback and switch roles a few times.

There are many more ideas out there and I will get into more drills and exercises with the distance drills with partners.

Fencing on the Strip
I know that everyone wants to get out there and have a grand old time, but if you are not well drilled in your footwork it is hardly likely that you will keep good form when under pressure. Last night Tom Lutton definitely showed me that I could be doing quite a bit more footwork practice as well as distance and timing. Given, he is an A rated fencer and has very good form, so not to listen to him would be folly. Some more advice and teaching he gave to us is not to pause in your footwork, either move or do something, do not just hangout in the most dangerous zone, and especially bad if you stop moving. Lots of things to think about, but one of the most important is that with practice the footwork should become second nature, then distance and timing comes more easily and can be built on a solid foundation of footwork, not to mention building bladework on that solid foundation.

This Last Week or So
I have been running and walking for cardio exercise. I haven't started to do any drills at home, need to add that to my routine. A bit tough to do when it is raining outside and inside is so small. Not really an excuse. Would like to know what you are doing. Cardio, strength, drills? Also, things to add, critique?

If Fencing, Learn to Fence!

2011-11-07T13:00:00.000-10:00

When I was growing up practicing meant sitting on the hard piano bench and maybe playing, but mostly waiting for a half-hour to roll by. Homework was a once or twice a school-year occurrence mostly consisting of a science fair project or some other large project, even through high-school. So I do not have a stellar record for discipline and practicing, but I am beginning to see the purpose.

Tirade
Right now there is a severe lack of discipline in our fencing group, everyone wants to fence, by which they mean sparring, not learning to fence but just beating each other about the head in hopes of landing a point. It isn't that bad, but it is getting worse. I am not the most disciplined person in the world, but somehow my meager practice and discipline stand out over most of the rest of the group.

A Call for Discipline
We could all use more discipline as a group. The good thing is that there does seem to be a bit of warm-up discipline, most fencers will jog around the gym a couple times and do high-kicks and side steps. This is a good thing to keep up, however, it should be slightly expanded for most to include arm stretches and individual footwork.

The point of the warm up is to get muscle groups working together and warmed up. This may help to develop muscle groups for those who don't do anything else throughout the week, but for someone in decent shape the warm up will do nothing but get the blood, muscles, and bones moving. If a fencer were to commit a solid thirty minutes to working on cardio, muscle group strengthening, and fencing specific individual things such as footwork and point-control, then and only then would I say that is a start.

In fact I would say that 30 minutes once a week of intense individual fencing practice would be for those who plan to never go to a tournament, who enjoy fencing just for fencing, but who need to maintain a level of activity and skill in order to keep up with those who plan to be competitors.

The leisure fencers should also work to maintain their bladework and distance skills by doing partner practices for about 30 minutes a week as well. This is to keep from injuring their fellow fencers. This is a sport based off of three weapons, there will certainly be injuries and bruises, but they can be lessened by in large by good form and decent control.

Competitive fencers, or really any fencer who plans to go to a tournament, even if they claim just to be fencing for fun, should be held to a higher level.

Cardiovascular Condition: Should be able to maintain intensity through a 3 minute fencing period. For direct eliminations, or larger tournaments, should be able to maintain 3 of those periods with 1 minute breaks in between. Smartly choosing intensities and tactics for different bouts in order to conserve/be ready for all day fencing. I run 5 to 10 miles a week currently, but I have very little good experience and knowledge at correctly choosing intensity and overall tournament strategy. I feel stronger and more energetic on the strip than I have for nearly 3 years before I picked up running again. I would suggest anything from power-walking for 2-3 hours a week to running 5 to 20 miles per week.

This could get very long pretty quickly so I will be writing up several more posts of what a competitive fencer should be doing each week in order to advance beyond just talent. I know this is hard for some to take as it seems that I am just pointing a finger, but truthfully it is something i need to consider to. Some questions we can ask ourselves: Do I want to get better? What bad habits should I try to eliminate? Do I want to be fencing as strong at the end as I was in the beginning?

Until next time work on some cardio. Next time is footwork.

AI Class is Really Interesting

2011-11-01T12:53:00.000-10:00

So the week after getting back from Colorado and Wyoming I started an interesting free class: an AI class offered by two professors from Stanford. It is an intro course but even from that I am learning quite a bit.

I just finished homework #3 all about machine learning. It was quite in depth with derivations of equations to get the equations needed to answer the questions. It is well put together and usually makes sense. My one complaint is when a huge long equation magically appears. I am happy that they edited the videos to be a bit shorter and the sound isn't choppy at all, it's just that those huge long equations that I might need later just appear, fade-in, drop in like it came as a pre-assembled part. I have to pause the video to be able to write it down and hopefully not forget what it is about, although Prof Thrun does a good job of explaining all of it, if quickly.

I unfortunately did not manage my time right to get Homework #2 done, but this last week I managed to get #3 done with time to spare. But I have to seriously start in on the videos tonight probably after fencing, otherwise I will be doing all of them last moment. I hope they posted them already.

This class also helps me to know if I am ready to do online courses from somewhere that I will have to pay for. I believe that I am not burnt out as I was when I finished college, but I definitely need to carefully keep track of my time before it comes to get me. Let me know if you are taking it too.

A Fun 10k and Still Sore

2011-10-31T08:26:00.001-10:00

So I ran the 10k that I linked last time, and am still sore. It was quite a race and a nice day to boot.

Jessie and I headed out of Hilo about 5:30 and went across saddle road. Noticed a bit of traffic then but they all passed us, might have been racers but not completely sure. Turned off saddle and went down 190 toward Kona and turned at the ranch with Pu'u Wa'awa'a on it.

I got ready and the time finally came, people wandered over to the start. It was the most relaxed starting line I have seen so far. Only one person was right up to the start, all the rest hung back so I was close to the front but tried to get a bit further back before the start.

They did the ready-set-go, and we were off. Of course I was passed by a ton of people who hadn't lined up in the 5 feet of clear space before the line, so I really couldn't help it. The first short leg was around the reservoir that had Nene actually swimming around in it... so odd to see them swim. It was a bit over a quarter mile and looped back near the start to a road that started the climb. Did I mention the climb? All 1200 feet of elevation gain? Well, now I will.

This is the craziest 10k I have run, this one being my 4th, but the elevation gain around the Pu'u (cinder cone) will probably keep this among my craziest races for a while, outdoing the 5k with 600 feet by a long shot. Outdoing it for one because it was twice the gain and twice the distance, but also on a four-wheel drive trail that had loose A'a balls (cinder) that ranged in sized from thumb to head, though mostly fist-sized. Big enough to break an ankle. Of course everyone had slowed down as we started going up the ascent. It wasn't too bad, for the first few hundred meters. It was up, but not UP, but then it started to be UP and I found that walking with big strides was getting me further than maintaining a cadence of small running steps. Also the lungs and heart were not really happy with the GO UP NOW mentality.

I probably walked most of the three miles, interspersed with running to pass one or tow other people. Leap-frogged a bit with one person. They had names of trees for the Dry Forest posted as we went up the hill, I don't remember too many of them, maybe I was focusing on other things?

As we went up there started to be dirt in between the rolly-stones. Finally cresting at 3260 feet felt great, except for the rest of me which was in agony. And then I started the descent. In general I hate going down, I didn't hate this one, but it sure was a lot of down.

At one point I was essentially sprinting down the side of the pu'u and trying not to die. I was running out of breath even going down, just from moving my legs fast enough not to wipe out and die. Lots of potential to die. Fortunately most of the surface was well packed dirt rather than the rolly stuff we had ascended.

I slowed down quite a bit and mostly finished at that pace. Came back into near the starting area where Jessie got a few pictures of me looking tired. The glasses help hide the wonderful state of mind I was in. I didn't even have enough to sprint to the finish. Came in at 1:10:27, not bad considering the course, but no where near my 57:13 PR.

To do better at this race I will have to do way more hill training and not just sprints but finding and doing long hills, which is not hard to do in Hilo. But this was a crazy race. Most others around here are flat or rolling, a few have some fun hills, but I think this one takes the cake for Hawaii Races.

Added Running, but Still Mostly Fencing

2011-10-28T17:00:00.003-10:00

Wow, it has certainly been a long time. Who knew back then that I would start running? Not me certainly. I do enjoy it though and it helps strengthen the old legs, okay not that old, for fencing.

Fencing has had its ups and downs this last year and I am surely feeling an itch to not quite strike out on my own but to certainly teach people what to do. First we lost the gym at UH Hilo, but that might have been a blessing in disguise, it certainly got a few people riled up and we have a new place to fence at Mauna Loa School Gym on Tuesday evenings.

We have had a huge influx of people this year due to the drastic cut in cost and good recruiting by one or two of our fencers. But unfortunately it is not a class so the people that are new are mostly getting a trial-by-fire and there have been a few injuries due to that set-up. I am a bit concerned but it is hard to know what to do. I have been shot down for formalizing the club to provide a cover for our fencers and a bit of organization so that if someone is sick/injured/busy we would be able to carry on with all of our equipment as a "club."

As an individual I have taken the action to become a professional member so that I can be covered. I would love for the rest of the group to be covered as well but that is a personal choice at the moment that none others have gone for.

Now on to a lighter topic: Running. Tomorrow is an awesome 10k race at Pu'u Wa'awa'a just northeast of Kailua Kona. The course is pretty rugged "featuring 1200 feet of elevation gain in the first 3 miles," which, needless to say is a whole lot of feet. Jessie and I will be heading out bright and early tomorrow morning to get there for the 7:45 AM start. The weather should be mostly clear for this Dry Forest 10k. Now I just need to keep hydrated and eat a good supper. I will write about it Sunday, well at least I hope so. Here is the link: http://www.pathhawaii.org/2011/08/puuwaawaa-2/

Hawaii Open February 27th and 28th

2009-09-01T09:11:00.008-10:00

Here is a list of the events for the Hawaii Open as I got them from Colin yesterday. The event is to take place in the Neal Blaisdell Center on Oahu. To preregister go to: http://askfred.net/Events/moreInfo.php?tournament_id=9231 and sign up!

Event	Date	Registration Closes
Senior Women's Epee	Sat 2/27	8:00 AM
Senior Women's Foil	Sun 2/28	8:00 AM
Senior Women's Saber	Sun 2/28	1:00 PM
Senior Mixed Epee	Sun 2/28	10:00 AM
Senior Mixed Foil	Sat 2/27	10:30 AM
Senior Mixed Saber	Sun 2/28	2:00 PM
Vet Combined Mixed Epee	Sat 2/27	3:00 PM

Finally Fixing Foils

2009-08-31T11:13:00.003-10:00

Our fencing club is primarily a foil club. We often experience weapons failures if the body-cord or the floor-cord doesn't fail first.

The most common failure by far is in the tip. One touch is fine but a minute later a white light comes on when parrying before I have a chance to riposte. This is not completely diagnostic or limited to a tip problem but it often can be. After checking the connection between the body-cord and the weapon, mostly wiggling or un-plugging and plugging back in, I then check the bolts that hold the body-cord to see if they are loose. Then I check the length of wire that runs behind the pad to see if is crushed, and then inspect the length of the blade for "inch-worms." If there is nothing obvious then it is probably time to take off the tip and clean out the corrosion as Hawaii is a great place for things to rust quickly.

But if we weren't primarily a foil club we could do sabre where the most complex pieces of equipment carried around are the lame, which is only complex due to delicate strands of wire, and the body-cord. The sabre itself is either broken or the plug is bad if everything else checks out. I read somewhere of a procedure that would be able to isolate the malfunctioning piece of equipment, I forget where and how, but then after that the malfunctioning piece must be fixed and sometimes it is a struggle to know what to fix.

As I learn more I will share, hopefully our fixed weapons will work!

Tired Fencing is Erratic

2009-08-28T16:07:00.003-10:00

Yesterday I was fencing with our club and by the end of the night I was noticing just how large and grotesque my parries were. I was mentally tired but not particularly physically tired but it effected my game quite a bit. But it is exciting enough to stay awake.

Need to really write more.

Long Time

2009-02-26T09:48:00.001-10:00

Just busy, take a look at the new post about legs, please feel free to comment!

Bryan

Legs and Locomotion

2009-02-26T09:46:00.000-10:00

Feet are important, but they don't go anywhere without the legs, so let's talk drumsticks. People I have observed are often not aware where their feet are, and they don't know where their legs are. No matter how strong your legs are, they are among the most often hurt. So, as feet are important, so are legs. Knowing about your legs could save you trouble down the strip.

Your feet move along the strip, your legs move your feet, your legs carry your body on top of your feet. Often when an action happens in the legs and feet the body telegraphs it for the whole world to see, or at least the opponent. One of the forms is bobbing: both knees straighten to some extant. The feet may also be a bit closer than they were, helping the fencer to stand up. From this position the fencer needs to drop down again to effectively take advantage of an en-guarde position. When repeated quickly down the strip it seems as if the person is galloping down the strip.

Rocking is also a major problem. This is caused by one or the other of the knees straightening, causing a shift in weight. This is particularly disastrous because it can bring the target area much closer to the tip of the opponent's blade. It can also bring the front knee too far over the foot, causing strain over the long term.

Bouncing, it may feel as though you are ready, but I have a story from another martial art, Tae Kwon Do. One of my friends told me about a tournament where he faced an opponent who was bouncing in readiness, he circled once, got the rythm down and caught his opponent just at the top of the bounce. Even though it wasn't a big movement the feet needed to be on the ground to initiate an effective reaction. Along with setting up a predictable pattern it is tiring and can lead to long term damage, or short term strain.

In warm-up getting the blood flowing in the legs is a good thing, and bouncing might be an ideal warm-up. However, out on the strip it shows an over-eagerness and an easy way to tire and defeat the bouncer. The feet should be lightly on the strip but leave excessive, repetitive bouncing out of it.

An exercise: The escalator, some old comedian or another used a waist high curtain and made it look like there was an escalator behind it. The smoothness of his descent was quite a treat and feat. Do something similar, and see how low you can go with smooth steps, no "elevator."

The importance of knees is to bend, right, but knees need to bend correctly. Most knee injuries come from lunges. A competitor lunges at an opponent and has to keep going to get the point. The front knee is bent well beyond the foot. This in itself is okay, only if you don't need to retreat, but slowly come out of it and celebrate a good touch or wonder how the opponent got that riposte. However, it is more likely that you will try to spring back to avoid the riposte. The pressure on the knee to come out of this very low lunge can damage it and possibly bring your bout to a close. The rule is to not let your knee go less than 90 degrees with the foot or the leg. That way the sudden reversal will not put quite so much pressure on the knee, but spread it to the foot as well. Make sure to practice lunges slowly to get the feel of a good lunge, make it muscle memory.

The hips are just as important as the knees. In combination with the knees the hips provide the other side of the shock absorbers. You should feel as though you are sitting on a somewhat high stool, but definitely sitting. This allows for the movement of the knees to be compensated for by the hips. This compensation deadens most of the movement of the legs, making smooth steps seem even smoother. There should be no galloping or rocking with the knees and the hips working in concert.

Strong legs are good for fencing. That statement is obvious, being able to move in fencing is the best defense and offense. I have seen people win bouts without moving more than their wrist, but they were 90 years old and had very good form, also they couldn't keep up if they were to try to move. Anybody below 70 who doesn't have an injury or chronic pain should move. So what do you need to do to get those legs into tip-top condition?

- Squats, calf-raises, standing leg lifts, side-lifts toes forward, one-legged, with weights.
-Sit-ups and reverse sit-ups or supermans, are actually important to the strength of the legs. These exercise the core of the body which sits directly on top of the legs and there are muscles that run between.

Knowing what your body is doing is important for all physical motion, most people just go about their daily lives without thinking about it. In fencing this is another idea which needs to be ingrained so that it can be done without thinking. You may try using any of the bad things as lures for those who might react to them, however, it can get your feet bound up in a knot if you are not careful. The legs are the movers and shock-absorbers built into one. Learn, strengthen, take care of and you will move opponents to the brink of collapse.

Fixed Website

2008-12-12T15:23:00.002-10:00

It took a bit of doing, but now it should be fixed hawaiifencing.org should now work as is, no special ways of going about it. The official http://www.hawaiifencing.org was given to me all of a sudden by Google, who changed something so that my previous work around just broke it. So I had to mess around with all sorts of technical things and it now works. Now to go find all those places I put the old address. I also added a thing to leave comments and whatnot on the Contact Us page of the site. I would like to put the funny looking letters but I don't know how to embed anything into google forms. Oh well.

I am working on the next post, it should be out before Christmas. Have a wonderful season, and Merry Christmas, now if there was only a bit of fencing somewhere during that time...

Hawaii Open "Postponed"

2008-11-18T20:27:00.002-10:00

I've been looking forward to something larger than a club tournament for the past year. Of course that means that the big tournament over on Oahu is pushed back until 2010 rather than February 2009. Flights might have been as low as 90 dollars round trip from our island. But the mainlanders can't come because they scheduled a tournament on a close weekend and tickets are expensive, so Hawaii cancels. Argh!

In good news I was contacted by a fencer up Kohala ways and I got new fencing gear from Leon Paul! The gear is shiny and the sabre blades have a real nice ring to them. Maybe I can use the bag to get my gear back so that I can fence while back on the mainland over Christmas. I doubt it, but if I contact people then I might be able to, who knows?

The Air We Consume

2008-11-18T10:33:00.002-10:00

Humans tend to need to breathe even when it would be very nice not to. Of course it doesn't help that some people need to wash their fencing jackets, as the smell could kill several small animals. Though, truth be told, fencing equipment is much easier to clean than Kendo equipment that is dyed with indigo that tends to run. Needless to say the smell in Kendo can be overwhelming. It is very necessary to air out or wash equipment in Hawaii, as anything left in a pile will soon become colorful. And don't even get me started on rust and weapons, or that Hawaii eats everything, maybe I will write a list of materials and how they don't hold up to Hawaii some other day.

On the serious side, breathing during fencing almost needs to be well practiced. Breathing in certain loud ways before an attack or other action can become a tell-tale, so be careful. But the need for release when doing an action, such as a lunge, is very true. Holding your breath while doing any action may harm you, but it is most likely going to slow you down, meaning they will stab you. Smooth breathing is one of the keys to smooth movement. There is a release after the point where a competitor screams and pumps their fist.

Watching the Olympics this past August, I noticed quite a bit of screaming and yelling after a point. I really don't like it, and it gets really annoying on the other side of the strip, I call them screamers. It is used to sway the director so that the confidence in a point is seen and it can be a release although it is not very good.Kendo has a kiai, or a shout that identifies the target and the intention. The kiai is before and during the action whereas the scream in fencing is usually at the end. In Kendo the shout can demoralize the opponent, and also it is a release while the "killing" movement is made. But in fencing the blades are much thinner and an important part of calling the action is listening to the beats and parries. So if a scream was during then a fencer may be warned or possibly carded for anything before the halt.

There is a school of thought that uses "Hey-la!" It can be common, and used as a feint. The "hey" is the bladework and can be drawn out as more parries and attacks are necessary with "La!" being the perfect point. This of course is a form of release, or not being tense when attacking. I think this is from the French school but I am not sure. The big question to most people who aren't just afraid to vocalize, is will it help? I think the answer is yes, but be careful of overuse, or it becoming a tell-tale. But back to just breathing.

On just the breathing side, you should be in good enough shape that a bout with 9 minutes of total fencing won't make you die on the strip. Many people don't think of fencing as to intense, but unless you can stand still with perfect technique, or stunning stationary stabbing, you need to move. If your opponent realizes that you are easily winded, then they can run you up and down the strip, taking advantage of your tiredness to win the bout. The cross training does not need to be intense for those who just want to enjoy the sport, I walk, hike and swim. I also lift weights, do push-ups, sit-ups, pull-ups, squats, calf-raises, run hills, but I need to do that because I work in a chair most of the day. I am doing better at maintaining an exercise program, but I need to keep my motivation. With all of that, one of the most important exercises seems really easy, but shouldn't be overlooked.

Breathing well can be its own exercise. Taking into consideration breathing when a person with a sword approaches can seem crazy, but it is essential. The fight or flight principle drops a bunch of adrenaline into the body causing increased heart-rate and faster breathing. Hopefully you won't run from the strip, but not having control while fencing, even if your body is fighting, will be worse for the damage given and taken. You need to be in control, adrenaline is okay, but you need to relax so that your movements are less jerky and you can put the point in line before tying to get a touch. Breathe with the diaphragm as this will greatly reduce how much your arms move when you breathe as well many other benefits suggested by breathing gurus such as singers and swimmers. The better you breathe the better fencing you will do, even if you don't beat more people.

Lastly, dealing with a surprise or a hard hit can cause a fencer to lose too much focus. If you need a second after a hard hit, or someone running into you, ask for it and recover your breathing. If it is just a surprise people still often stop breathing. If they had splashed water on you or thrown you into a river, this might be a good reaction, however, not breathing on the strip will soon slow you down.

When you have thought about breathing and trained, then you can focus more on the technique and allow the under-workings continue to function appropriately when there is stress. So if you have stopped breathing in protest about how much I wrote about it, I can say that I will stop, for now.

Tell-tale Twitch

2008-10-30T23:04:00.002-10:00

Okay, one of the biggest problems a fencer has is a tell-tale. Well, from what I know that is the biggest problem any fighter has. A preparation before an attack, whether it is a twitch or a pattern it can still tell the opponent that you are about to attack. So there are two things to do with a tell-tale: Eliminate it, and then use fake tell-tales.

First, you either have to be good at self-criticism, or work with a partner. Second, you need a mirror, unless you have a trustworthy partner. The drills are as numerous as the potential situations in which you could show your intention, and also being lazy this late I won't list them but say that the lunge is one of the biggies.

A tell-tale before a lunge can be as subtle as a shift in weight, to a large rotation of the upper body as though trying to gain rotational acceleration from the movement and therefore make the point of the foil move faster. Whatever the physical or mental reason for the tell-tale, it signals the opponent, so whether or not it makes the point go faster, it will give the opponent more time to react.

Subtle: A pattern of breathing, shift in weight, small twist in torso, small pattern with the sword, shuffling, tilt of the head, and many others.

Pronounced: A sigh or making sounds, standing up, hunkering down, large twist in the torso or bringing the off-hand froward, a pattern of heavy beats, a pattern of footwork better defined.

None of the listed things are bad in themselves as long as the patterns don't get too extensive or are repeated often. But if every time you lunge is preceded by the same action, then the opponent will pick up on it, even if they aren't all that observant. Working with a partner should start with a bit of sparring just to watch the other closely. When you see something that is repeated before a lunge or other action, stop the sparring and point it out. Then it is time to breakdown the movement to try to get rid of the unintended movement, so take it slowly and build from there. Beginners won't have too hard a time ironing out a few flaws they have picked up in the first month, but intermediate and advanced fencers might have to work over several weeks to eliminate a habit.

Once you have successfully eliminated all of your quirks, good luck with that, it is time to throw them back in. But wait, isn't that what you just trained out? Yes, but using them as feints can be effective to an extent. This works well against observant, over-analyzing opponents, not against ones who just come in anyway. Make a non-opening tell-tale before lunging, and then do it again before another lunge. Now you have the opponent. You can now play with the opponent for a little while until they figure out that they have been tricked. There are two ways of using feint, one is not to use it at all on the third lunge and just make it clean, completely surprising the very observant, and the other is to make the feint so that they attack into it. Of course with an extremely observant opponent the first one will only work once, and the second may work twice if you are lucky.

There is a psychological side other than just tricking the opponent once. An extremely observant opponent will become extremely cautious because they realize that you have control over your tell-tales. When someone is overly cautious in a competition, it often, but not always, leads to defeat. However the same is true for over-confidence. So in taking control of the bout, don't forget that they might use the shift in their favor.

I shouldn't forget about the breathing thing, that has many interesting side-tracks. I did list breathing as a tell-tale up there, but if you don't breathe correctly or at all, you will be at a severe disadvantage. Just don't make discernible patterns of sounds without intention. So I will write on breathing more and soon.

The Secret to Skewering

2008-10-30T15:13:00.003-10:00

Many times I will miss an opponent utterly, or just continue to hit off-target. Both of these things are frustrating, especially after pulling off a wonderful parry. Ben says that it is because I am not lining up the shot, or in other words being hasty, and trying to throw my point out to the opponent without aiming.

The secret is to parry, put the point in line, and at this point two things might happen: The opponent might very well run onto the point with a strong enough attack, and you will be pointing at his target, or the opponent will stop making it necessary to extend the arm for the riposte, as well as possibly lunging. However the basic physics lesson for today is that an opponent who is coming toward you tends to continue coming unless fleet of foot and able to stop on a dime.

So, parry, point-in-line, riposte in one fluid motion will make many rpiostes much better. There are many other bladework ideas in foil, but I will cover more later.

Resetting the Counter

2008-10-29T11:35:00.004-10:00

Just a quick note that whatever counter I was using before had some really weird links. Just to click on it sent me to some probate thingy. Oh well, I suspect that I won't quite get the 400+ visitors I had before, but that is certainly alright. I will put up a new post about my struggles with bladework soon.

Footwork

2008-10-13T11:37:00.004-10:00

With any martial art footwork is the foundation for the rest of the movement. If you don't know this or are just beginning a martial art, then you will here this quite often. Fencing is no different, and in fact it can play into high-level strategy as well. Though what I am going to cover is pretty basic.

In both of the gyms we practice in, there is a problem with the stickiness of the floor and the potential for tripping and/or twisting an ankle. This is caused by humidity, a clean floor, and not having one of those fancy grounded-metal strips. The problem people have is that they don't quite pick their feet up all the way and their toe catches on the sticky floor, causing them to fall or reel. Sometimes it is just due to inexperience with the floor or basic footwork, but sometimes it is due to people trying to be sneaky by leaving their toe to slide along the floor so that it seems that they haven't lifted their foot. This can be used as a tactic but shows a few flaws.

The first problem is the physical part: The top of the foot becomes extended while the heel is lifted and the toe is left on the strip. This is bad for two reasons, first is that the foot is in a precarious position and if rolled it may sustain more injury because of already being extended. The second is that this shows poor conditioning for those fencers who do know better. I know that it may be hard at the end of the day to maintain good foot technique, but if the fencer is already tired in the middle of the first bout and can't keep the toe from dragging, then there is something that needs to be done, such as drills or cross-training.

The second problem is the audio part: The toe dragging on a sticky surface may make a squeak that is loud and clear, and alerts the opponent to the intended movement. Even when not on a tacky surface the sound of a shoe sliding can give warning, even if it may only be subliminal. But of course this can also be used as a feint, to make the opponent think you are going to do something. But this is along the same lines as stomping, just a bit more subtle.

The third problem is the knee: Someone who is trying to be sneaky about their toe may forget about the knee. Whenever the heel comes off the floor, the knee comes up, and the knee is closer to the opponent's focus than the toe. Some will even lift the heel very high as though it would help them. Again, it is more easily seen by the opponent and puts the foot and ankle in danger.

Footwork should consist of the feet leaving the floor in a normal manner but still promotes the correct posture. The feet should never be lifted far above the floor, this is wasteful and unproductive. The foot should travel parallel to the floor as close as one is able to control it without touching the floor accidentally.

I will probably write more on this subject later on.

Turning a New Blade

2008-10-09T15:51:00.002-10:00

Rather than just blog at random, I have come to a decision that I could help myself, my club, and potentially our website by blogging about fencing. The nice thing is that the title for the blog doesn't need to be changed, only a few other things do, but anyway. Go checkout the website at hawaiifencing.org. And come fence with us!!

Today I was walking like I have been for the last few weeks for my noon break up and down the hill. This a really sticky affair as it is usually well near 80 for both humidity and temperature. I was stopped by someone from one of the other telescopes and he asked me when and where fencing met. I was wearing my Hawaii Island Fencing T-shirt so I wasn't too surprised. Hopefully we will see him Monday.

Last night I posted about 10 photos taken by Bill Harby of Imagery Ink of our fencing club fencing in the old Mountain View Gym, if you would like to look at the photos, they are at the website and are copyrighted. Bill used to fence with the club but has taken a long hiatus, but hopefully he will start lessons where he is now.

Some of these posts might get technical, but hopefully I will be able to add in some drawings and the like as we go along.

So I do have a blog...

2008-06-20T15:41:00.002-10:00

Well it has certainly been a while. So long in fact that many things have changed, specifically I am living and working on the Big Island, Hawaii. Talk about a change. If I were to move to any place that was much more different from Wyoming it would have to have a foreign language. Oh yeah, I guess the locals have a pidgin dialect that is actually considered a creole which is one level below being a recognized language.

Anyway, I should really start writing again, although I write in several other places about many different things, hmmm... Well then I don't know. I will write sporadically, how about that? Maybe a bit more frequency than once every 10 months.

Ahhh! Run Away! It's School Again.

2007-08-27T09:00:00.000-10:00

Okay, be calm and take a deep breath. If I finish then I will be done as it follows logically. I think that my job won't conflict. Hmm... what if I take one more class? It could destroy everything. Well, maybe not but it is close enough.

It is a great day to go back to school: Cool, cloudy and with intermittent rain. Perfecto. It looks as though the semester should go smoothly if I don't just sit here and waste all of my time describing my travails to my faithful readers. Maybe I could go into commentary about national politics and how I am glad that Gonzales is leaving his position at just the right time not to allow a recess appointment, whew. Although my political views may lean left at the moment I tend to just not like the people that somehow made it into office against everybody's better judgement. So I will stop complaining about that and complain about something else.

The school, UWyo, has some new construction projects that they started just in time to be extremely well placed to be in the way of most of campus. The projects have take over nearly an entire parking-lot's worth of spaces of around 100 to 150 spaces and made travel extremely hard unless you travel on the north or south edges of campus. One of the projects used to be the old honors house where I lived for two years and they tore down weeks ago. The other project is right in front of the union where the heaviest foot traffic usually occurs on a normal school day. The old Anthro building is being torn down for a new wing to the library. That's all and good except the part where thousands of students have to circum-navigate the huge site. Okay, need to go eat lunch and get more things done. Wish me luck with the Fencing Council at 3 o'clock, it should be politics as normal, which should never be in fencing period, never.

Um, so Summer?

2007-08-21T09:22:00.000-10:00

It is nearly gone and what I did this summer was fun, and made money but I really needed to make more and have more fun. An interesting problem no doubt but now in the past.

I am finally moving into my own room. As Paul says I might suffer a bit from agoraphobia, not really. Actually I am currently suffering from how-much-junk-do-I-have-and-where-do-I-put-it-all-phobia. In other words, boxes that have been packed for the past few months are disgorging objects that I know I have but now need a place to store, in a box?

The nice thing about the apartment I am living in is it being on the third story. The third floor is the top floor, that means no people with drunken parties over our heads at 2 in the morning. Also another good thing is that my roommates are all reasonable people or if one isn't the other two can help convince them otherwise, hopefully. We also have a huge south-facing window! That means plants can thrive, and grow, and be green, and well grow green. We have four plants from the Honors House that was torn down this summer. A seven foot tall ficus, a huge monstera, a dumbcane of some sort and a huge rubber plant. I also have my jade plant, spider plant and a rhododendron of some type, if I spelled it correctly. One of my roommates has at least 5 other plants in the apartment currently and could bring more. Hmm... Jungles come to mind after listing all of those plants.

I also read recently about the numerous types of possible bonsai and ficus family had a few that could be grown into bonsai. So looking at our tree carefully I might mark some possible branches for pruning and then stick them in dirt and make them grow to be one small cool tree.

Of course there is school. I think I mentioned what went down, but that along with my complaints about all of UW's construction plans and how they are going about it will come later.

Remember children, look before you cross...

2007-05-20T19:11:00.000-10:00

The street is a dangerous place for those on foot. Especially foor feet, black fur, and didn't look both ways. Enough with the intro though I want to get this down in a fresh state rather than trying to remember it some other time.

I was walking along a street in Laramie just trying to focus, or let other focuses go when a black dog came up behind me. I didn't think of it much as it ran by me and I looked back for an owner. I didn't see anyone but they might have been ahead of me. I was going to the park that happened to be on the other side of the street. Now a sort of clarification, the road curved a little bit so I was crossing from the corner of one block, the inside of the curve to the sidewalk on the other side. I was crossing and got about three quarters of the way across when I thought about what the dog might do, this of course being about the time I heard a car. The dog started crossing as the car came about the curve. At first I thought the dog had enough clearance but that wasn't the case, the headlights lit up the dog's side and a horendous crunch ensued. The dog cried and moved toward the sidewalk I was standing on. He was favoring a leg the way he was limping but I couldn't see very clearly. As he came up onto the sidewalk I grabbed his collar and he pushed his head against my leg and stopped whining.

I was really happy to see tht the driver of the caar had stopped and came back to see what happened. That action right there, just coming back to take responsibility, I can do that and I know many other people can too, though I have seen a lot of people just keep going. A guy that had been riding his bike came over too to see what was happening, the people who owned the house we were in front of came out as well offering to call the police and the vet so that this could be taken care of correctly. I was really glad that these people came out or back to help rather than just turning a blind eye. O fcourse the first thing they asked me as they all appraoched was if it was my dog. No, of course not, but there were no tags except for the s-hook that is supposed to hold a tag.

The lady from the house brought out one of her dog's many blankets to help cover the dog. Once covered by the blanket the dog wanted to lie down and so I made sure that the leg he was favoring didn't twist wierdly as he lay down. A little whining and he was lying down with a blanket to keep shock from settling in. I just squatted there petting the dog and talking to him to get a response every so often sort of like how they train you to deal with human shock victims, except he was much quieter once he settled into a position. Now we waited for the police to come because there were no animal patrol people out and about during the night.

Before the blanket was put over him the three of us, the bicyclist, the driver, and I assessed the damage to be a dislocated left hip because he couldn't quite pull it up if it had been an injury lower down the leg. He wasn't bleeding as far as we could see however later on we found out that he had a little bit of an abrasion on the ribcage. Now interestingly he had been hit on the right side, the side of the abrasion, but the dislocated hip was on his left side. This doesn't really make sense until you think that the dislocation probably came about because the far leg, or the left leg probably went underneath the body and was pulled from the socket. The right leg had just been reconfirmed by the collision and it stayed intact, however if the car had been higher clearance or a truck the dog probably would have been dead.

The police came, a young officer that pulled up and got out. Rather than just turning around after seeing that it was just a dog he said that he would help get it into the truck that the guy whose house this was in front of provided. Unfortunately for the kid that had hit the dog the police officer gave him the usual accident information please... license, what he saw, how to get a hold of him. Probably all very unecessary but still good procedure. The officer did a check that I know but forgot about, shining a light into the dog's eyes to see if they react to the light, they did, a good sign that the dog wasn't in shock.

The officer and I had gloves on and so we lifted near the head while the bicyclist got the rear-end. We got him into the truck. The bicyclist and I rode in the back of the truck out to the vet's. We had a conversation out there, when we got there we unloaded the dog and the vet got him up on a table. The dog, anyone could tell was in pain, but stood on the table patiently as the vet took a look at him. The dog it seems will be fine and if no one claims him it seems that the bicyclist may keep an eye on him if not adopt him.

I got a ride back and now know a few more of the Laramie residents, really nice people here, a lot willing to help a dog. And what a dog: after getting hit, settling down right away, not biting those trying to help him even under so much pain. Even though it was not a nice experience it was a good one. Although it doesn't have to happen again, remember: look both ways, all of you.

Taking Tiny Break

2007-04-23T15:07:00.000-10:00

I really have to buckle down, but right now I just sit here and wait for half a second ........ okay. Well maybe I will say that Wyoming weather has landed us with some serious precipitation. This morning was nice and clear, and warm which meant that nearly no one had a jacket for this afternoon's very long rain, almost like being back in Japan except a bit colder. The birds were even singing this morning: Chickadees, Ruby-crowned Kinglets, Robins, and a few others with not as nice songs. It's really starting to feel like spring in Wyoming, just a couple more snowstorms and we will be in summer. Anyway got to go.

Two more weeks

2007-04-20T11:10:00.000-10:00

Just posting for no apparent reason. I just thought that I would have some time. Wrong! Now with deadlines piling up I can see the end but it is through a tunnel built of a whole ton of crap to finish, it could easily collapse in other words. I will be careful though, maybe I will even finish.

50th Post in Over a Year and Over 306 Visitors

2007-04-12T14:15:00.000-10:00

I didn't realize I have had this thing for this long. It is nice to get my thoughts down every so often, this week more than others. One of my friends calls it self-justified drivel or something to that affect. I believe that if you want to view it that way fine go ahead. I don't write about politics the way some of my other friends do, it is more self centered, more chronicling what I have done every so often with some of my own opinions thrown in. Statistically the Blogosphere has stopped its explosion and has settled down, hopefully enough that the technology for finding fakes and destroying them gets rid of all that garbage that probably contributed to the explosive growth.

Again, as I have said before, I really don't know who reads my blog. I know that I have contributed between 20 and 30 different IP addresses because of all the computers across campus that I have visited the blog with, including this one with dual LCD screens that allow me to ignore the other screen while I type on this one. If people other than Thomas would comment once in a while it might give me a better idea of who is reading my self-centered observations. Thomas, you can still comment, I am not setting a ban on your comments, I would just like to see who is all out there.

The weather, oh the weather! It is Wyoming, however, it does not need to change so drastically between days, much less hours. But that's enough complaining. I need to go eat now, maybe do some homework afterward, maybe.

Difference?

2007-04-11T08:31:00.000-10:00

Hardly. Although I was able to concentrate for five hours yesterday on one single project. So maybe I do feel different about being 22. I've applied for jobs and am looking forward to graduating. So far, maybe a lot different.

I got an alternate position for the JET program teaching English in Japan. That means I don't know if they want me or not for a few months up till middle of October. From now until then I need to be doing something to make some money so I can start paying more bills. That is why I applied for the Brunton Design job. I would get to design outdoor equipment, or at least help in most of the processes with a team. One bad thing would be the location: Riverton. However Riverton with the possibility of the Wind River Mountains outside of town, a cool job, and the possibility to continue some of my sports wouldn't be too bad, actually it might be really nice. So now I have to wait for that as well. I can't wait, I can't wait...

Now how much fencing can be done in one weekend? Without killing oneself? With tournaments you might wear yourself out over two days, but that is off and on fencing. With a seminar where something is demonstrated and then the guest coach expects you to do it for about 6 hours on a Saturday... It was fun, though, I really enjoyed it and I think I learned quite a bit. There were a few questionable things that he told us about weight distribution but overall it was a very helpful seminar. The most important thing I learned was about the Sabre right-of-way which says that as long as you are moving forward before the other person and have not attempted and attack or been parried, then it is your attack until the first is finished. Well at least it is clear in my mind now, yo can rest easy. Bruce, the guest coach, also had quite a few suggestions for the recruitment and retainment of members for the team. I really can't worry about that for UW seeing as I don't know where I will be in the next few months, but if I get the Riverton job I might be able to start a feeder fencing team at the community college there. He also told us to call him down in Florida anytime if we had questions about drills, membership, or anything else.

I celebrated my birthday with my family and then came back for Monday, my actual birthday to go about my usual business of trying to complete school satisfactorily. Monday birthdays have to be the worst. Oh well, I think now I will do some mindless cleaning of some code.

Slowly Passing, Quickly Past

2007-04-05T09:17:00.000-10:00

That's how it seems anyway. The days while playing themselves out are eternal, especially when not doing anything, or working on things that aren't quite fun. And then it comes to pass and I am left with a feeling of missing something or undone. It's great. So I will keep this short.

There is a fencing seminar this weekend with a couple coaches from the University of Florida. They expect to cover all three weapons in about 15 hours for about 50 dollars apiece. Not bad considering some of the amounts I heard from some people about 50 dollars for 20 minute lesson in some big cities. Come out to the boonies, fence cheaply. I don't know of any regular readers other than Thomas but if anybody wants to and is around, come to the University of Wyoming Education Gym 5 p.m. Friday with 50 dollars. Ah plugging for stabbing, fun!

Alright, better work now.

1 Week

2007-04-02T10:18:00.000-10:00

I will be 22 then April Ninth, what changes? Uh, not really anything, other than getting ready to graduate. Other than that though there really is nothing different. I guess I should get a job. You know the thing that pays people for doing work also without the homework that is so irksome in college. Think about it, when done with work from sometime in the morning to sometime in the afternoon, going home or wherever not worrying about what's due tomorrow. What is due tomorrow? Hmm... Not quite everything, but a good portion. If I stop procrastinating now that would be good. Okay, it's not working, still procrastinating.

Reading a good series of books by David Brin. He is an excellent author although the end of this last book is getting a little weird. I haven't finished it though so it might end with a satisfying ending, or it might cliff hang so that he can write a trilogy of trilogies. I don't know yet. Have to finish so I can do more homework.

Ah well, nearly time for embedded systems again. Fuzzy logic, it's great fun, and soft too.

Snow and More Snow

2007-03-30T08:20:00.000-10:00

What is white, falls from the sky, is watery and does not require updrafts from warm ground? Snow. We were so lucky here in good old Laramie to get enough precipitation to close the University down at 3 in the afternoon. So I had no class yesterday. So rather than waste too much time I helped my friends make some mead. According to rough estimates and calculations it should be done just in time for Finals Week. Perfect timing. Let's just hope that is rots correctly, otherwise it could be quite dangerous to even try some. We do have one friend that can attest to a good batch because she has taken a brewing class here at the university before.

Other than making alcohol for making a good finals week I have about 4 projects that need completing some time in April. Most of them are with groups so that we can remind one another of what needs done and when. Solo is really hard since it is just you making sure that just you are on time. I need to get much better at that sort of stuff. Motivating me is like trying to pull something out of the mud that would rather just wallow. If I could ever find where I put my real motivation then everything would be much simpler.

Those projects that need doing include a robot simulation of search and destroy, finding enemy artillery by using topographic algorithms and the tendency for humans trying to make things look organized to draw lines of search patterns out from the previously found artillery pieces and track down the next set. When that doesn't work then the planning is set up differently so that the next pieces are found much more quickly. Another project is putting a real physical robot through a maze using fuzzy math and small or simple path-finding algorithms. Once we get rolling that project should be extremely simple. A third project is to filter certain noises or changing tones in a music file for Digital Signals Processing. It is an adaptive filter, which I have never dealt with before, but I don't need to worry. This is because I am on;y working in conjunction with my lab group. They are programming the filter while I program a feedback into the supporting desktop computer so that we can see the filter and its component parts move in correlation to the tone that it is filtering out.

Unfortunately today the University opened up again because the skies went clear and no more snow threatened to fall and block more roads, most of which are open down here, so I am again looking forward to the weekend rather than able to relax quite yet. I guess I should get some more useful things done at this juncture, seeing as if I don't...

The Fun of Few Days Left

2007-03-27T12:12:00.000-10:00

What does anyone want to know of the bowels of Bearaucracy? Let me tell you that you need awfully good excuses to get any consession out of anyone who thinks that the rules apply to, well, everyone. Sure they do, but not when you twist the rules. Remember, power is not as good as it seems, in fact it tends to corrupt, and absolute power... If you have a chance to quash hopes and make money at the same time why not exercise that little bit of muscle that lower down higher-ups are allowed. Let's just say that I ruined a perfectly good spring break, a chance to work on my projects, by having to plumb these oily, nasty depths. Now I am so far behind that the entire fight over graduating with all requirements met might fall through because I couldn't finish a project, which means utter failure and no graduation.

So in other news the weather is swinging, just like it should, from warm (60+) to cold and snowy with several inches of accumulation and back. That was over the span of two days, the rest are pretty stable temperature if windy today. Grand!

The Cowgirls have been beating down other teams for the basketball WNIT tournament and that means the fencing club has been working consessions where there are nearly 12000 fans in the stands and we work nearly constantly. It will be over this Saturday, one way or another.

I saw a career opportunity with Brunton that is a designer position. Brunton is a outdoor equipment company, compasses, GPS units, camp stoves, power supplies, and a whole ton of other things. It is for all majors listed in the career services and seeing as I have design experience and also experience using equipment as a Boy Scout having the Rank of Eagle Scout. And also its not all engineering necessarily, or at least no the circuits idea. A big plus might be helping design things correctly so that they don't have stupid flanges or other delicate parts that break easily. I really hate products that are not meant to last while being used continuously in the way they are supposed to be used.

I believe there is pizza in my near future, so I am going to go sniff it out and eat it. I may write again, sooner than last time, possibly.

Sleep? Oops.

2007-03-05T09:30:00.000-10:00

Remember, always have the correct amount of sleep to be able to function in the world you are living in. In other words, do not find a game and the correct hardware and stay up until 4 a.m. unless there is no school the next day, even then it is a bad idea. It took nearly a day and a half of looking for hardware drivers then a new card, which really isn't new, and then looking for drivers for it based on the fact that the chips and fan were set at a 45 degree angle to the board. It is quite the identifier in one line of graphics cards however within that line there is the GT line which all have the 45 degree offsets. So I got it running off of a driver that probably is lost in too much memory seeing as the driver was for a 6200 and the card could have been 6600. Oh well.

So once the card was running I got the game running, that caused this wild goose chase, in "safe mode" which is a whole hell of a lot better than anything my previous card could do. And now there are things due, places to go, people to meet, blogs to write, and many other numerous things that do not sound good, even though I have coffee and water in front of me and a machine that definitely won't run the game. (Using a school computer.)

So now I am writing about my project, or well writing this when I get stuck on something writing about my project. As seen above my mind is not what it should be today, or where it should be. It isn't even wandering, it's just laying there as though, well, insert a good metaphor here. And now back to write a few more sentences on very important document...

Okay, that was not fun, trying very hard to concentrate and finish, even this sentence. I paused right before "even this sentence" and could not figure out how to word it. I think I need sleep. But really want to write more, both for a grade and for this. Oh yes, and for stories, going to have to make a story timeline because write now my idea editor, Thomas, has no idea how I am structuring my thoughts, since right now I am just writing bits and pieces. I am really happy though to have somebody comment on, well right now, very scattered thoughts that make sense to me but obviously not to someone else. Seeing as he knows me better than say the public at large I would say that this is a good indicator that I need to rethink quite a bit of how I am going about writing the story. Thanks Thomas.

Last week, for those who aren't in Laramie was in the single-digits and teens for almost the entire week, add on 30 to 50 mph winds on top and you get well below zero apparent temperature. Today it should get to 45 or 50 degrees, a perfect summertime temperature. It's been nice that we have actually had winter this year so we might be able to enjoy summer, unless it gets too warm, this time though I have a basement, so it will stay nice and cool if we turn off the heater.

Finished the last game of concessions for the UW men's basketball season, they probably won't play at home again, and I'm glad. I was helping out the fencing club with fund raising and I had previous contacts so now the club will be able to replace just about all of the equipment and get a few new items that we haven't had before. Working food service makes you realize just how badly food is handled, we, as the club, actually were quite clean compared with some of the people that worked with us. So I am happy to be done selling very overpriced food and beverages to those who think they need it for such a short time. Oh well, we got free food in the deal, but the food left a lot to be desired after a few hot dogs or pretzels, even spread over a few games.

So, in conclusion, I need sleep. Otherwise I might faceplant while still writing this last sentence, must... hit..... publish....and log-off.

Long, long time, no write

2007-02-12T11:44:00.000-10:00

If there are any of you out there that I scared away because of not writing, well then I must have an audience of some type or another. But I highly doubt that there are many people that constantly read my ramblings especially since the total deprivation for 2 months would have been catastrophic to any relying on my tantalizing story.

Just took a test that I am sure I didn't ace but certainly did well on, have to see though, could be interesting. If the weather gets any nicer than it will be considered summer here considering that 60 degrees F above the coldest temperature without windchill puts us at 40 degrees. At least we didn't get the New York snow, we still have snow melting from December and another skiff that just makes it brighter outside.

Lots of birds out there, Chickadees, Robins, Pine siskins, haven't heard any ruby-crowned kinglets yet but it feels like April already, well at least April before the drought. Saw a piece of crow wing with a bone slightly connected, maybe the raven that I saw flying around got it, or the 30 to a 100 other crows got it, who knows.

Anyway, off to class.

The End is Here!

2006-12-15T10:30:00.000-10:00

No more for a few weeks. Then it is back to the grindstone.

Three weeks, six tests

2006-11-27T16:49:00.000-10:00

Two homeworks, or three and a lab. Oh yes and a paper that I nearly forgot. Oh well, hopefully I will live. most of my plans are going forward in the next week, sending in the JET application being near the top along with homework and tests and a few other things.

I ran four miles on Turkey day to help fund raise for a children's hospital. I finished at about 33 minutes. Pretty good for not having done long distance flat running. Then on Saturday I fenced the day away, I should have brought something to do because it was technical failures after technical failures. I think before we hold a tournament here again I am going to go through the equipment myself, after all it is really very simple circuits, and I believe there might actually be some logic gates! Oh fun, I really want to open up a box and see what is inside! But who knows, we might not use our boxes the rest of the year. Just the swords, cords, and lamets (sp?). Oh well, can't do everything. There was a kid who said that he would build some wireless equipment but since then I have not seen him. It is too bad that I already have a Senior project. What's a little more though? Death, if I continue my current schedule of not doing much except for what is absolutely necessary. I need to break that habit.

How soon will the end come?

2006-11-15T12:47:00.000-10:00

I am not talking about the end of the world, just the semester, but I guess that means tests. Just now looking up the testing times. I have one on Wednesday and two on Friday. The one on Wednesday is German, the two are Probability and Stochastic Processes (Statistics with integrals and billed as a "Friendly introduction for Electrical and Computer Engineers") and the dreaded Electronics class. I hope I pass electronics, I really do because otherwise next semester is a mess not to mention taking nearly 19 hours if I have to retake that class.

The hardest class next semester should be the operating system design class, I hear it is lots of programming, not fun. But the class on modern robots and softbots should be extremely fun since it is being taught by a very good professor. Can you tell I want this semester to be over, I will leave behind some good memories further in the past, but, so is life, sais la vis.

What I am looking forward to with even more good cheer is the end of undergraduate schooling. If I manage to get out of here and start working, to teach English in Japan or work in industry, then I will be fairly happy. Happier of course if I get into the JET program, but if it doesn't go that way then I will be looking for a job in Germany more than likely.

Monday morning I was able to sprint the Hurlathon on the stair that we do twice a week. I mean actually sprint, I had run the entire exercise and this is where I usually stop because that is hard to do on its own without the hurlathon. We run up to the top of the first colored chairs, then down, cross over and run up to the same row. Then come back to the first side and run up to the top of the different colored chairs, do this until the top is reached. Do the top a total of four times and then work down to lower and lower levels. When finally finished with that pattern sprint to the top four times in a row. Most people don't sprint but I flew up those stairs, I was surprised by my increase in strength since the beginning of the school year. I guess I should be doing more school work. It sounds like bragging I think but it is just how it is, now if I can get up tomorrow morning for the Thursday run that will be great.

The Day Before Tomorrow

2006-11-10T08:10:00.000-10:00

That day is today. Ach! and today means that tomorrow is coming soon. The faster and faster progression of days will lead to other days, but now I am finally looking at these days in a somewhat better light. Actually I like the nights better, if there is a moon it is nearly as easy to see as in daylight and if there isn't then it still isn't so bad as some people think. It isn't quite as cold as it should be here this time of year. Some people are wearing short-sleeves and not because they are used to the cold as is the case in the spring when twenty degrees feels balmy. This morning was finally colder than the sixty degree days we have been having the last two weeks. When snow falls again and the temperature never gets above forty for months on end and hopefully the snow doesn't melt the day after it falls. If it gets down to negative twenty or thirty again then it will be a good winter. If it were to stay that cold, to keep the snow around of course, then it would be a real winter again. I wonder if my generation even remembers winters, real winters not the warm ones these days.

Relaxing, Really

2006-11-06T08:23:00.000-10:00

The more I try the harder it gets, to relax that is. I was able to relax when I went home for a total of 23 hours. That certainly helped, but I am still really wound-up, it has been like this for nearly a month, maybe a little less. I feel like I have so much energy and yet no place to expend it. I do fencing, Kendo, and ping-pong something of three days a week, I also run stairs in the mornings twice a week although I admit I missed one today. I am extremely tired at the same time though, it seems as if I was carrying something very heavy but only when I think about it.

More specifically I think I passed all of my exams last week. Two exams, a presentation, and on the Saturday before I had the Fundamentals of Engineering exam, an eight hour monster standard throughout the US that is the precursor to getting the PE or Professional Engineer's License. Fun! The presentation was definitely the highlight of the week. I taught people how to fold cranes in German. Most of them got it and I was complimented on it by my professor.

Now I know it might sound disingenuous to say that I might be in Japan next year because my Germany plan fell through because I just want to finished with schooling, but... I am applying for the JET program to go teach English to Japanese students somewhere in Japan. Fun! Fun really, not joking this time. I just hope that I will learn lots of Japanese.

Fun with Electronics

2006-10-18T07:43:00.000-10:00

Just got done with a lab report for electronics, now to finish prelab. These would be more fun if they weren't so cut and dry. But oh well, just another thing to get through right now.

Finally Settling into Winter

2006-10-17T11:41:00.000-10:00

Ah, the nice cold days of winter, I believe they are right around the corner because it snowed today and the temperature is in the 30's and expected to drop this afternoon. So now that I am not so willingly freed of some things that I was involved with I think I have more time for homework and the like. Got to go find a professional background for a powerpoint dealing with a telescope. Here's a picture that I definitely will not use for the background:

This is a rose that is still blooming, as of today, in front of my basement apartment. That is my window in the background. It is a little bright but the white spots are snow. The snow started falling early this morning, but as with all snow in Wyoming these days it really doesn't stick around for as long as it should.

Enjoy the picture, now for me to do work, but you can continue enjoying.

Interesting Things and Bad Things

2006-10-08T10:59:00.000-10:00

Interesting thing: my roommate has a blog. I didn't know, the info came from a third source. That's how much I talk to my roommate though. Really haven't seen him in a while because I have been gone from our basement apartment except to sleep, eat, or get some stuff for the next activity. I think it's cool, but as long as we keep the comments positive about each other. Going to set up a link on the side, go visit his blog.

Bad things: Sick and two tests coming up this week. Self explanatory.

Interesting thing: Some friends and I actually made tea with ginger root boiled with it. Then they put cocoa powder, crushed red chilis, cinnamon and a couple other spices in. Right now I really don't feel sick, and am a bit beyond wired, for a few more minutes. Here's the recipe:

8 cups water
1/3 cup coarsley chopped fresh ginger root.
4-5 bags of black tea
1/4 cup cocoa powder
3 dashes of ground cloves
4 dashes cinnamon
5 dashes cayanne pepper or else crushed red pepper in a coffee filter, you really don't want to drink it.

Boil the water with the ginger in it. At the top of the boil put the teabags in and turn the heat to a simmer and let the bags in until the tea is a satisfactory strength. Take out the tea bags and the ginger. Put the pepper in if it needs a coffee filter, wait for two minutes and remove. Add the other spices and the cocoa last. Stir well. Drink carefully, it will burn even if it is luke warm. Drink until tongue goes numb along with the back of the throat. There really isn't any need to add sugar to this, it has enough flavor on its own and you will be able to chew fresh ginger root directly after consuming this sort of beverage as demonstrated by my friends.

Thinking

2006-10-04T15:30:00.000-10:00

For some reason it is very hard to think right now. I really don't know what to write and, well... I don't know how to continue. I guess I am tired but I know how to deal with that. Classes are easy except one that I shouldn't even take my eyes off of for fear that it might destroy me. And well... here's another dead end in thinking, or at least writing. Let's just say that somedays are better than others in certain confusing situations. It is amazing how irrational the mind can be and once the analyzing kicks in it flings me to lower depths or greater heights. Fun. Or not. To not be confused is my goal, and in all instances that is what it is, but then (fingers dead on the keyboard) I am confused for no good reason. Do I just forget or what? It really isn't forgetting as much as analyzing a single point until that is all I am thinking about and not seeing the entire picture. This is not a very good strategy for nearly any application but this really isn't an application, just life.

Now I see my flow is coming back, even if it doesn't make sense to anyone but me or the few people that I have talked to. I just... cliche statement, want to understand but I am afraid that I might not even if I drop everything that I am doing and try to figure it out en totale.

Now to listen to some fun music while I try to do things other than type here, if the page loads. Finally, Cape Breton Live, good source of streaming celtic music, mostly Scottish I think. That's all for now.

Another week...

2006-09-28T19:17:00.002-10:00

GONE, or close to. I really think these weeks are getting shorter and shorter. I hope it isn't a conspiracy but it might be, more on that later. Now to get a little bit of ranting in.

I hate protestors, or at least the ones that have been in Prexy's pasture for the past few days. They are protesting abortion, which is fine(to an extant), but they are doing it with shock methods. Showing pictures of murdered children and the processes that did them in. One guy I passed was asking people why they weren't doing anything to help, he was standing there yelling at us and being oh-so productive. I really just want to tear into some of those protestors and ask why they are wasting their time doing this rather than finding a solution. My solution: the development of artificial wombs. If a woman accidently becomes pregnant then the pregnancy can be moved to one of these so that the woman does not have to deal with the severe ethical issues that arise with the entire current debate. I am sure some people would be against the entire idea of an artificial womb saying that it dehumanizes the kid, but if we aren't killing them... Ach just think of the new debates. Wonderful.

Okay, enough with the ranting. Maybe I can get some sleep this weekend.

Another week...

2006-09-28T19:17:00.001-10:00

Another week...

2006-09-28T19:17:00.000-10:00

Weeks, passing quickly

2006-09-24T09:40:00.000-10:00

The weeks are going so fast that I really can't keep track of them very well. Didn't school just start a week ago? No, it didn't and according to my count this next week is week five. WEEK FIVE? Where have the others gone? To answer that question would take one word: somewhere, specifically, somewhere in the past. So they stay there.

My jaw still hurts pretty badly but it might just be the muscles trying to reattach themselves to my lower jaw. That would be good, but it still hurts and so that is bad.

I went home Friday to get my holes checked out by the doctor to see if I had anything going wrong with them, nope. They are in good condition and might be mostly filled in in five weeks. Sort of like a broken arm, except there is really no way to learn to chew without your mouth. If you break your arm you can learn to eat with the other.

I am thinking rather than going to Germany in January that I will just finish my schooling and be done with it. There are two reasons: number one, Germany is 18,000 engineers short of filling all engineering jobs. And I really would like to finish school right now and be out in the real world of projects rather than homework. I might go for a year to Japan to teach English and learn Japanese then I might look at jobs back in the US or in Germany, or by that time I might be able to work in Japan in industry. If I come back to the US I would certainly like to start my own company and just start turning out as many good ideas as possible.

Ah the plans, the plans they are great. Hmm... now just to find out how I could do them all.

Teeth, ouch

2006-09-20T17:30:00.000-10:00

Some people think it hurts to get teeth pulled. It does. Some people think that getting general anasthetic means that you are out for much longer than your surgery. Hmm?? I first remember about a half hour after the operation. Fortunately they put local anasthetic in as well. So it didn't hurt, yeah! I am actually in more pain now nearly a week after then, than I was just a few days after, it's fun though with the endorphins going through the system every few minutes.

A drinking game, and feet

2006-09-05T09:16:00.000-10:00

I am not advocating drunkeness in any way. In fact I find drunks pretty stupid and hope to never be one. This game is for those who don't want to get drunk.

The other night the people above me had a party with a little too much noise so I went up stairs to ask them to be quieter. Fortunately they are nice people, at least while drunk, and invited me in for a beer. I accepted and went inside. The upstairs is quite a bit bigger than my basement apartment and they had already moved to a room not directly over my bedroom. I accepted a beer and started sipping at it when one of the girls asked if I wanted a shot of rum (as far as I could tell) and one of the guys poured a shot glass all the way to the top and tried to hand it to me. I refused until I thought of a good idea.

"If you hold that glass still for a minute and don't spill anything, I'll drink it." The guy agreed and I started counting. by the time a minute was up he had spilled quite a bit of it and I took my first shot of hard liquor. Bleh! It had so much sugar and flavoring that I had to take a swallow of beer afterwards to get rid of the taste. They said it was supposed to taste like cotton candy and it did to an extent but I think I will be avoiding rum and other highly sugared, high alcohol content drinks and stick to beer and some wine in moderation. Needless to say I refused anymore shots and left soon after.

Speaking of wine, red wine goes well with pizza, probably because it will go with any red italian dish. Go for homemade pizza though because all the other stuff isn't half as good.

I think this is a subject I will bring up only from time to time rather than listing everything, because I wouldn't have that much to list anyway.

I haven't been doing much kendo because of my foot, the wierd thing is how fast it heals afterwards. I am doing execises to strengthen my foot because I believe that stronger muscles will keep the tarsals apart better meaning that the nerve won't be rubbed so much. So I just sit and watch and hopefully don't cringe too much when people do something wrong. That is a hard thing to do after observing for a while. I am doing fencing and ping-pong because when I am in shoes the foot doesn't hurt at all. That is why I believe it is foot strength, because when I wear shoes or go around barefoot not doing kendo then it does not hurt at all. Kendo seems to be the culprit and once I am confident enough about my foot then I will be working steadily on good basic footwork for a few months before returning to normal practice.

Organizing

2006-09-01T08:12:00.000-10:00

Ah, the joys! It really does feel good to be organized, it's just my usual procrastination that hinders it. I organized a google calendar, remembering that I am going to get me teeth removed on Friday the 15th. And I have notes as to when homework is due in all the classes so hopefully...

Now just to organize my room so that all the boxes are somewhere out of the way. I admit I haven't been spending very much time at the apartment even though I just paid 300 dollars for it today. But there is only me and my roommate and a computer that isn't connected to the net yet, or maybe ever. I have been spending my time at the honors house on campus and brushing up on my lack of social skills by talking to and listening to people. The summer wasn't all that great for speaking to people because I had an internet connection in my room, that might be a bad idea. I'll think about it harder, it costs money too. Oh well for internet then.

Survival of the somewhat fit

2006-08-31T06:41:00.000-10:00

Well, I have survived 3 days of the first week and am on my fourth today with engineering senior design and German. It really isn't hard, no assignments so far and no labs this first week. I hope to test out of health because first, it is stupid, second, I know much of what is going to be taught, third, it is an 8 o'clock class, and fourth, it is crowded. I just have to place out of it with an exam next week that looks simple enough but of course I guess I could easily fail it or get a grade that will not be acceptable and I will have to take the course anyway. I could get out of the activity, rock climbing, because I am in a club sport, ping-pong, but I want to do some rock climbing so I will continue to do it anyway.

Speaking of physical activities I did about six hours of them last night. First was Fencing at 5, then kendo at seven, and then ping-pong at nine. I should have been up at 6 this morning to go run stairs but I felt pretty tired so I just rolled over and went back to sleep. So with that schedule I could probably get out of any PE requirment.

Time to start heading to class.

Half-an-hour

2006-08-28T05:34:00.000-10:00

Class for me starts in just under half-an-hour as I write this and it seems that the summer went by too quickly. If I just had one more week... I would probably squader it. The nice thing about last week was that all the people I know, that haven't graduated, were coming back and so I could see them an d talk to them. Listening to harrowing study abroads to Israel or quieter ones in France and other places. And also getting to say good-bye to those going overseas this year. Now if I can just be one of their number.

Tried doing pull-ups today, got to twelve and gave up, only for today. I haven't done pull-ups in such a long time that it was hard to start again, but if I am to do rock climbing and not be hauled up by my harness then I will continue to improve on twelve.

I should probably start moseying over to my first class, oh and thanks to the hundredth person, I don't think it was me because my counter said 101.

School

2006-08-25T19:01:00.000-10:00

School starts in such a short time that I am having trouble reconciling the summer and all that I did or didn't do. I am going to take a few electrical engineering courses and a German course as a refresher, I hope I survive that. Just got my textbooks in, yey! Means I can start studying German and Probalistic and Stochastic patterns or something like that.

Almost one hundred, I probably added one more by using this computer. If you see #100 on my counter I invite you to comment. I would just like to know who else is out there other than Thomas. Sorry Thomas, no offense meant.

Almost a hundred different computers...

2006-08-13T18:55:00.000-10:00

Almost a hundred different computers have visited me according to my counter. That doesn't mean a hundred people, I might be responsible for five or six of those computers. I hope I didn't scare off any of those people regularly reading my nonexistent blog because I didn't write for a while.

What can you do, though? I am just about to move to a new house which should be interesting considering it's a basement but near the theater and a park, pretty good huh? Maybe I'll start running in the mornings again because of closeness of grass. Concrete and asphalt are horrible surfaces to run on, but grass is much more forgiving even if it is uneven. Although, thinking about it, maybe I shouldn't run. I think I have done something to my foot during kendo. Rather than having problems with my right foot from fumi-kumi-ashi, stomping on an attack, my left foot has a pain between the third and fourth meta-tarsals where there is a nerve that dives between those bones according to people I have talked to. It may just need rest but it may need a shot of cortizone(sp?) or removal, not the foot, the nerve. Fun!

The other day I got a call from the oral surgeon's office asking if I could come in the next day for consultation and... SURGERY... Well I tried to scrape up a few people to look after me after surgery so that I wouldn't do something stupid like drown in a thimble full of water. My family is currently out of cheyenne on the annual family trip somewhere, of course I am too old to go with them it seems (something about making money) anymore and I guess it's okay but they don't know that I almost went into surgery. I am sure my mom will throw a coniption even though I didn't do it. I will probably have to wait several months before getting the surgery done. Although I figure that while I am on the last year of my parents' insurance, is there anything else I need done? My foot? I don't know of much else, also I want to be in perfect health before traveling abroad, otherwise I might be in trouble money-wise. How many surgeries are too many within a few months? I really don't want to find out.

It is hard cleaning out a room I have become ensconsed in. It seems almost as familiar as my family's house but I will be glad to get away from the ill-done and ill-kept bathroom. I don't mean ill-done as in decoration, ha, who cares? Except that it has carpet, old brown, and well, stinky. The wall paper isn't much better and all three of the drains in there including the toilet are always on the brink of blocking up. The sink drains slowly and it's sort of disgusting. I should take care of some of this but... I am moving and I have caused very little of the problem so I will clean out my room with minimal trace left that I was there and then I am no more. Of course I will from time-to-time visit but my staying days are over.

Now for something different:
What are men but lost and confused?
What does anyone want?
To be happy, and in happy be content with this short ephemeral existence.
Make an impact how you will.
Bring on the fires of hell, I will fight.
Bring knowledge and wisdom, I will learn.
Bring peace and security, I will enforce.
But most of all bring freedom, I will enjoy and defend.

I don't know if I can take my own advice on the learning bit, nearly burned myself a few minutes ago. In my defense I had an oven mitt on but I had to grab the heating element which I must say burns through much more quickly, literally, than a metal pan. I had to clean up the smoking stuff in a heating oven. Learn from me, don't be stupid. Fortunately I move fast, no harm done.

Much said, now mute.

Have you had a day...

2006-07-12T18:08:00.000-10:00

Have you had a day where nothing comes to you? I wasted an entire day, but I will work extra hard tomorrow. Or maybe enough to get done what needs to be with maybe some time to do other things.
I am trying to pull multiple things together from anywhere, a couple days ago to next January through December. Hmm... Fun!

Hmmm...

2006-07-11T18:53:00.000-10:00

Quite a good sight in the fridge:

Eggs if you couldn't see clearly. This is my fridge though not my eggs. These are about five months old, possibly.

Some pictures and comparisons

2006-07-08T09:52:00.000-10:00

Here are a few pictures, the first from Japan and the rest from Wyoming.

This is a view from one of the temples we visited in Kyoto. A little bit hazy.

Mountains in Wyoming, the Snowies in June. Can see very far with only a little haze, it should be clearer except that our wonderful neighbor states are smogging up the air, but the wind carries it away quickly.

A Bitterroot flower about the size of a thumb nail. Larger subspecies of this plant was an important food source for a few American Indian Tribes. This would be a very small root indeed.

Snow still in the trees off of the park (a large treeless area) in June. Sally, my parents' new golden retreiver loves to play in the snow.

Marsh marigolds.

Natural sculpture in the Medicin Bow Forest.

Tenegui (sp?) the bottom one from a long training weekend here in Laramie. The top one from Takarazuka Kendo-jo.

Long time no write

2006-06-26T07:28:00.000-10:00

It's been nearly a month since Japan and most is well. I hope that I can go back, but now I should be focusing on more relevant problems such as my space grant. It is so easy to procrastinate in wonderful Laramie. The weather is nice and cool even compared to Japan a month earlier. But it's a tiny bit dry with the foresters for different agencies saying Wyoming and the rest of the west is about a month ahead of schedule for wildfires and extremely dry conditions.

I worked for a day on a construction site. They had me back-filling curb on a track, did that for about nine hours with small infrequent breaks on a very sunny day. I recovered from the soreness for the next week. The wierd thing was that I did some Kendo during that week and while doing Kendo I didn't hurt at all. Hmm... good I guess, although who knows how much longer my recovery took because of Kendo.

Speaking of Kendo I was able to go to a dojo in Takarazuka, Hyogo, Japan. Not the one I was looking for but still a very nice one and closer to the college. Yuko, my host sister, took me to the Takarazuka sports center and to the Kendo-jo inside. I was just going to sit and watch the class when the head sensei, Nakao-sensei, came up to me and handed me a shinai. Through Yuko he asked me to demonstrate some of what I knew. Great! Then everyone stopped in the calss to watch. Even better! So I did some basic targets, in street clothes, and kiri kaeshi. Then one of the other sensei worked with me for about an hour or so.

Afterwards I was invited to drink cold green tea with the sensei, three or four of whom were rokudan and several others godan(6th and 5th respectively), and a student who had just recieved the rank of ikkyu. Nakao-sensei told a few stories about some of the foreigners he had taught and how much they had improved over their stays, both in Kendo and speaking Japanese. One of his foreign students called mochi, pounded rice made into confections, Japanese chewing gum. They gave me a dojo tenagui (sp?) that was purple with the phrase Brotherhood through crossing swords, or something similar, in white kanji. I was invited to join them again on Wednesday to practice for an hour-and-a-half. I went on Wednesday and had a great time. I never found that other dojo, although the map said that I was very close.

I suggested the dojo that I visited to Beth, a girl in the Wyoming Kendo Club who is going to go study for a year at the college we visited for three weeks. She will definitely enjoy it I'm sure.

I will tell more stories later and throw up a few pictures.

Finished but not yet Recounted

2006-05-30T03:13:00.000-10:00

I really didn't want to come back. Japan is so cool, I really just wanted to stay. I just have to figure out how to get back to Japan without breaking the bank. Janice said that anybody who wanted to could join the class without taking the class next year. In otherwords cheap stay without having to go to all the classes. But then again I think there is a better option, especially if I'm in Germany next year. Hmm... could be really quite interesting, and hopefully affordable. Lufthansa has direct flights from Fankfurt to Osaka for about 1300 dollars.

Lost and Loving It

2006-05-16T13:22:00.000-10:00

Who says lost is bad? Not me but then I really wasn`t lost yesterday. Really I wasn`t. I knew where I was and how to get back, just not how to get where I wanted to get to. Asking a few questions of people who didn`t know english and then one who did but with no idea of where my destination lay. I walked around for about two or three hours without success and finally came back. Hopefully I might be able to find it on Saturday or next Tuesday, hmm... if I just knew alot more Japanese. I know directions and asking where something is but there are alot of ummmss and all sorts of akward pauses.

And writing this much later, all the interactions I had with shopkeepers were either in broken english or broken japanese. It helps that I learned to say (in broken japanese) kore wa hitatsu or futatsu or the counters such as ban and all the rest. If I write any more it will be tomorrow morning or Monday morning.

Rainy Day

2006-05-12T11:11:00.000-10:00

I finished copying down the hirigana and katakana so I may be able to sound things out at least. It will not help me understand what I am saying, just a way to help facilitate meal ordering. Maybe by the end of the trip I will be able to recognize the kana on their own without the help of a notebook. The best classroom is the real world. I forget who said that.

Today is raining pretty hard from what I hear, I have not looked outside myself but it sounds like its raining pretty hard. Now do not jump all over my apostrophe grammar, I would have to hit too many keys to actually use it. Also today we are going to learn a little bit more about the way of tea and ikebana or flower arranging. I should hope that it will be a good day despite the rain.

Yesterday, after the welcome party we visited the music building and participated in a class that was taught in English and it was about music. It was very elementry for the music and not overly hard for the english and something that american schools would probably never fund.

Long　Day

2006-05-12T01:55:00.000-10:00

So it was a great day, wandering around the campus on a tour, getting welcomed at a welcome luncheon and then getting a "train lesson" and eating some superb ramen at nishinomia kitaguchi station. All in all a great day, now to go copy some hirigana and katakana so that I`m able to at least sound out what I want rather than pointing it out.

Here and already loving it

2006-05-11T14:35:00.000-10:00

Flew in yesterday on a flight that would never end, 14 hours from Dallas to Osaka. I think I went crazy during the flight, not really but it did seem as though nothing really happened. I slept maybe a total of twenty minutes on the entire flight. That is quite amazing when thinking that we got up at 3 a.m. to get to the airport to catch a flight to Dallas and then the long flight from Dallas.

The weather right now is just the right temperature with very little humidity. Already went wandering this morning watching all the people going to work. It seems most walk down to the mass transit and take that where they are going rather than driving. We went through a temple on the way back up to the college we are staying at. It is such a different society and I understand about one of a thousand words. We are getting a tour in an hour or so and then a welcome party, should be interesting.

This keyboard that I am using seems like a normal keyboard except that it has hirigana all across it, hmm... I think there is a button that might do something　いぇん I think that says yen, but not really more like ien. I will take some pictures and eat some ramen.

Japan, Two Days to Go

2006-05-07T15:53:00.000-10:00

All the paperwork's finished, I have my passport, starting to pack, reading the books for the class, am I forgeting anything? I don't think I am. I know how to pack for trips because my family traveled at least once or twice a year. The optimum amount of junk (clothing, toiletries, gifts) all depends on the person. I pack light, the lighter the better. I'm going to have to carry it so it might as well be managable. Here's a partial list of stuff I think I need:

-6 days of clothing, so it will be laundry twice while I'm there
-Gifts, a book, a placemat and a deck of cards
-Hakama and Gi, in case I can practice some kendo still trying to decide whether or not to take it.

-Toiletries
-Books, notebook, pencil, pens, smaller more portable notebooks, class materials in otherwords
-Camera with extra batteries and a charger
-hat
-shoes, one pair has to be an inside pair only unless I want to be in my socks or barefeet all the time

I really can't think of much more to go with me. I think I will be prepared though so nothing should surprise me.

Remind me to write about the LAN perty we had last night.

I'll write about the last Musashi quote when I'm in Japan, got to go.

3rd Month, nearly 30 people

2006-05-01T08:45:00.000-10:00

Happy May Day! What does may day celebrate anyway, hmm... hold on a second. Ah ha, May Day is International Workers' Day that sort of started in the US when workers wanted shorter working days. People always say shorter hours, but hours are hours, unless of course you say that you work for 45 minutes then take a fifteen minute break. Americans are notoriously overworked. Some European countries have a lot less gross hours over a year and hardly any overtime put in, their economies aren't quite as stable but still we could cut back a little even after 150 years after the first strikes to get "shorter hours."

I am really tired of school. This is the best week though. It's Finals. Finals means no homework, other than studying, and shorter hours compared to a job. The rest of the weeks at school are cumbersome with all the homework that has to be done outside of class, hence homework. I really don't like homework, when I have a job there will only be some overtime, no homework. And then I will retire... but that's way far away when I'm 60 or so (~40 years), a blink of an eye or less.

Saturday and Sunday were awesome. The kendo tournament did not go well for me but this my first one and I need to practice more, a lot more. I won one match in the team matches. I got one point and it was good and solid. The good thing about that point was that it was against someone who had a higher rank than me. Unfortunately on Friday night during practice I developed a blister on the bottom of my left foot, right in the center of the ball as big as my thumb. I tried to tape it up for the tournament but by that time it had created a bruise right under the toes so it was very painful and threw off my concentration(excuses, I know, excuses). I was able to concentrate on Sunday for the rank test though just because I put it out of my mind. After sliding around a wooden floor for about three days I popped it and today I was able to get back to training with no pain what-so-ever. I will have to be more careful next time before a tournament or a test. The criteria for testing were simple: 30 hours of practice within a consecutive amount of time, I had 60, know all nine bokuto kata or nihon kata, I know all nine of them plus the waza names for instance number nine is uchiotoshi waza. If you want info go visit the Wyoming Kendo site. And then be able to do basic things such as kiri kaeshi and uchi komi geiko. We tested in groups of four and Iwakabe-sensei (the head sensei for Rocky Mountain Kendo) said that the group that I was in did the bokuto kata the best! That's an excellent comment from Sensei. I hope I made 5th kyu, the second rank, but I will be happy if I made 6th kyu. If I didn't make rank then I will practice much harder, but as people said, the real requirements for making 6th kyu is that you can stand and breath. I can do both and attempt to show my best kendo skills at the same time so I definitely made 6th. My parents were able to come watch the tournament and finally see what I was talking about when I said kendo. Although I have a few complaints about how the tournament worked, I'm preparing for the next.

The Japan trip is coming up very quickly. We leave in a week and a day. I will have access to computers while in Japan so I will try to update as often as possible. I've been hearing only good things about this trip and am eagerly looking forward to it. I am going to make the class a little bit tougher so that it will meet some senior level course requirements but as I said before, I will do research on the correlation of the bushi, warriors, and Zen Buddhism. I might trhow in something about how this compares to others such as merchants and ninjas, I don't quite know yet.

Last, but not least:

"Overlook nothing regardless of its insignificance." Number eight of nine basic attitudes for a warrior from Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi as translated by Stephen F. Kaufman. I like this one particularly because I hardly do overlook anything. I notice when something changes, say for intance knowing that my roommate has been at the house by seeing the melting pattern of the snow on the sidewalk where his car left a shadow while the rest of the snow melted. Although sometimes I will notice something is different but not be able to pinpoint it, only rarely though. If you do not notice the signs then you may be trapped, that's from me as far as I can tell. There are many situations that are life threatening or just embarrassing that can be avoided if you can see and recognize the signs.

A Few More Pictures

2006-04-30T10:31:00.000-10:00

A few kenshi, including me (behind the camera) demonstrating the wonders of Kendo to the passing masses on Prexy's Pasture in front of the University of Wyoming's Union. Most of them just gave us wierd looks, and a newspaper quoted someone saying the craziest thing they've ever seen is ninjas on campus. Hmmm... I like the idea of ninjas but the traditional ideas, not the modern trying to take the name of ninja or ninjitsu. Oi, go bujutsu, go ninjitsu.

A few pictures

2006-04-19T04:53:00.000-10:00

A Kendo practice a few weeks ago.

Exciting! ...Really.

2006-04-16T17:53:00.000-10:00

Easter weekend was interesting, went to a sharp-tailed grouse lek early Saturday. By early I mean that I got up at 4 a.m. What a great thing to do. We got to the pasture before the sun had come up all the way. Rolling down the windows I could hear them drumming and calling, really weird sounding. As it got brighter we could begin to make out the white feathers on the males as they danced around. People who had been before said that this was the longest they continued, about half an hour. It got quiet really quickly once the grouse saw the Northern Harrier. We realized it was a Harrier too but had seen it sitting on the fence post before the grouse did. That was fun and as we drove off we realized that we had a flat tire. Fun, we had to turn bak to Cheyenne and call it a day for birdwatching. After getting home I slept another four hours.

Sally, my parents' new golden retriever puppy, is a little bit out of control. Just a little bit, but she is small enough that she can easily be fended off. My parents need to establish dominance with the puppy even though she should be much more docile. But she is hardly my problem, me not being there most of the time and not really planning on living at home for much of an extended time.

I got the books for my Japanese class. They are mostly interesting and I need to read the first few chapters for next week. I already found some material for my presentation about the connection between Zen Buddhism and the Bushi or warriors of Japan. Hopefully not too many people choose this subject but it seems likely. Some of my other sources will probably be Musashi since the Book of Five Rings does cover quite a few concepts of Buddhism and it will be unlikely people will have a copy of that book or have read it. Also the experience I have so far in Kendo I will try to apply so that people can see the connections.

"See that which cannot be seen." Number seven of nine basic attitudes for a warrior from Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi as translated by Stephen F. Kaufman. A very Zen statement, to see the thoughts of your opponent and act accordingly before they can react is the true way of defeating your opponent. If you can do this you will be the best. If you are not, or cannot, then practice. On that note, on to homework.

What to do when angry...

2006-04-10T17:37:00.000-10:00

First: try not to be in a situation where anger commonly arises. If I could figure this out for those wonderful situations where I am angry then, well, I wouldn't be angry. Hmm... sounds like target recognition in Kendo, need more training to see it, but that involves putting myself in the situation more often which is less desirable.

Second: deal with it on your terms. Do not take the anger out on the person who made you angry unless to prove a well considered point. My gut reaction is to deny an accuser, block a shinai (kendo), but the more correct thing to do is to tell the truth, or in kendo be faster than the other person. When someone moves to hit you then is the best time to finish them first, the longer you wait, or if you block the more time they have to recover from a failed attempt. The stereotypical way of taking out your anger is on a pillow. Pillows, I fear, are no substitute for a person, something more solid like a punching bag is much more useful. Also the heavier and more packed the bag, the better, make sure you punch correctly, concentrate on accurate punches and soon you will forget your anger and it will be replaced by a good batch of skinned knuckles.

Third: Commit the atrocity of politics, or dealing with the problem or anger on someone else's terms. "You need to change!" Yeah so I have changed a great deal and usually feel better for it. Give me some pointers to what I need to change, and please don't change on me for the worse. I have grown out of being too possessive for most things, I do things without being asked, sometimes I do more than necessary, and even ask politley if people would like to share something with me even if I would like the entire thing for myself. Lastly I am much less subtle in what I ask or say at the request of my roommate. I really do like a subtle turn of words sometimes but I do see the point of not trying continuously. A good pun is always appreciated, even if it takes me a second to register the pun, the best are made by people unwittingly and they usually groan or threaten when I point it out to them.

In other words this post is more of complaining then anything else. I think I would deal better if this came from a girlfriend but I have not had that experience and really cannot say.

"Strive for inner judgement and understanding of everything." Number six of nine basic attitudes for a warrior from Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi as translated by Stephen F. Kaufman. I am sincerely trying to understand everything but when I try a little further it seems that the basic or closer things that I already understand take a turn for the worse or I realize that I really don't understand what it really was in the first place. This doesn't help me progress. But I will strive for good judgement in all cases and try to understand what I come across so that I may help this world. Now where did I put the humor?....

Oh, Thomas, if you are reading this, write your essay! Or continue reading.

Survived

2006-04-10T05:15:00.000-10:00

Why are people insistent that on a twenty-first birthday you must get smashed? I don't know, I didn't and I'm better off because of it. Last night I had one beer, just one and no more. I could have ordered my food a little more carefully to go with it so I don't think cheese goes well with beer. That's a funny thing to think about, it's the alcoholic drinks that you have to order more carefully for, like wine and in my opinion after last night, beer. I mean you can get a pop or lemonade and it really doesn't matter what you have with it. Maybe it's just me. If you didn't catch on I turned 21 yesterday and was very happy that I did not hold back the other people from kendo in sitting in the bar area of the restaurant. Fortunately the restaurant was very busy and the request for them to sing Happy Birthday fell through, not that I would've minded if they had, just that it was nice not being sung to.

The really funny thing was that the two people on either side of me last night don't drink. Very odd that I really realized it now that while I was drinking my first (I have had a few sips of wine before) they were drinking lemonade. Having a German heritage I think that not drinking alcohol , being a tea-totaler, is unreasonable, but that getting drunk is absolutely stupid. I don't plan on getting drunk ever and last night was the night that started that, a single drink is fine. It's the same reason I don't cuss or curse. There's no need to, I tell my friends if they ever hear me cuss, running very far away very quickly might be in order. I will use it only to emphasize a life and death situation.

"Know the difference between right and wrong in the matters of men." Number five of nine basic attitudes for a warrior from Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi as translated by Stephen F. Kaufman. It is sort of self-explanatory, when you know what is right and wrong then you may act in good faith that what you are doing is right, I hope it's right, in today's post I know it's right.

2006-04-08T13:02:00.000-10:00

Well I asked for it, not directly, I think, but I got a digital camera from my parents. And this is Sally, a golden retreiver puppy, who takes a little bit of patience to take a picture of but now I have a good picture and an easy way to get more. Now this wasn't just randomly, I know that my parents want to see my trip to Japan so I will take pictures and post some of them.

That Japan trip requires daily entries into a trip diary and I'm thinking of either using this medium exclusively or just posting what I write by hand. I'll have to ask.

I'm going to skip Musashi for this post but I will take more photos for posts after this one.

Ah Ha!

2006-04-07T19:15:00.000-10:00

Now I can see how many people are visiting my blog, even if it's skimming. I chose the option that only counts the number of individuals not the number of times my blog is visited. So now to watch all the people fascinated with my wonderful life... At least 2, come on! Am I the only one that reads this blog? Well what if I put pictures up, that would require a digital camera or a scanner, I really don't want to bum pictures off of other sites. I'll just have to think what might make this interesting.

The housing situation is never easy unless the spending of gross amounts money isn't bad by staying in the dorms. That will burn a hole in anyone's pocket. My potential roommates were not impressed with what I found other than the cleanliness factor because the person who I had talked to previously about those accommodations was only the broker in case we wanted to buy, but as the manager of the complex put so bluntly, "He knows nothing, all his numbers are wrong." Or something to that effect. So even though I was attacked afterwards for speaking fallacies I made sure that the three guys would also be looking and not just leave it to me. I've known them for a while, when the leader fails in any of our escapades, that leader tends to keep failing. I'm guilty of seeing it that way also but in my defense it has been true most of the time. So I really don't want to be seen as the leader for good reason. It might still work out, we'll see.

Good news about the Japan trip: I over paid and got a check back which should be enough for tuition and books. Another good thing is the upcoming Kendo tournament which is going to be my first. The day after is a rank test, also my first, which I hope to make at least 6th kyu, if not better, but that's only because I've been training for nearly eight months and the test is going to be easy, just keep talling myself that. My Aunt nd Uncle sent me a birthday card witha check saying "Origami Paper in Japan" I will definitely put it to good use on some high quality paper. Just what to make eludes me. I am somewhat good at the traditional crane and a few derivatives that use half-and-halfs of other bases. A particular favorite of mine is the congratulations crane. It has a fanned tail sort of like peacock but still uses the crane base. If you use half a frog base on the oppisite side from the head then a swan is possible, just watch very carefully, I haven't seen it any where before but someone has probably done it somewhere.

And for the longest post yet, the winner for my blog, this post.

"Understand the Way of other disciplines." Number four of nine basic attitudes for a warrior from Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi as translated by Stephen F. Kaufman. Disciplines may refer to other martial arts but it also refers to arts in general. The pen may be mighter than the sword but if you understand both equally well then you are starting to round out, or you know nothing.

Brighter and Darker

2006-04-04T04:27:00.000-10:00

It's great when things go my way. I found new roommates for next fall which means that half the battle is done. Now the other half is also close to being won also, I just have to jump. Some people know what I mean by jumping and probably have done it themselves. I don't like jumping because someone said to but all those oppurtunities mentioned in the previous post are because I jumped. I hope that these will all work out though.

I am getting so tired of school that it seems all I can do just to focus in class much less on the homework. If this sounds like I'm complaining, I would say that I'm not, but I am and repeating myself. I learned to curb my complaining when I was fourteen on a backpacking trip, I had much too much gear with me and the entire trip was a hundred miles long although it was spread over ten days. Since then I have learned how to pack and seven years later I still don't complain half as much as I did before. Although this homework and school situation is more like a hundred pound pack on a four year journey where there really is no rest, espescially with the homework. I think I have good cause to complain but it still isn't good.

"Become familiar with every art you come across." Number three of nine basic attitudes for a warrior from Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi as translated by Stephen F. Kaufman. Art refers to the martial arts because if you don't know what you are up against then there is only a slight chance of beating it. So learn about all of them!

Hmmm...

2006-03-28T19:09:00.000-10:00

I've gone from almost no plans to plans coming out my ears. First I'm going to Japan for eighteen days, then an internship, then back to UW to start and finish a grant and hopefully I will go to Germany for a year of study abroad and another internship. Need to brush up on my Deutsch so that people can at least understand me and then hopefully I will be much more fluent when I start the internship. I know I can visit Kendo dojo in Japan, I already found one that sounds interesting. But Germany might be a different situation, let me go look... Yep, lots. In fact for being only a little larger than Wyoming there are 49 that I could count from a site in Germany. That's 47 more than are in Wyoming. I should be able to find a few within traveling distance, that's good.

I hope that I survive all of this that I have planned for myself, it should all be fun but there are a couple things not going my way for the Japan trip but I will only mention it if it does become a problem.

"Constant training is the only Way to learn strategy." Number two of nine basic attitudes for a warrior from Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi as translated by Stephen F. Kaufman. The Way is refering to a way of life Do in Japanese or Tao, Dao in Chinese.

The Second

2006-03-21T15:44:00.000-10:00

Time seems to slip by, but everything moves so slowly at the same time. Waiting for someone takes forever when it is only five minutes and yet walking the fifteen minutes to and from class I barely have time to think and find myself going up the stairs of the engineering building. Engineering classes can extend so long as to seem infinite. This happens especially when I start falling asleep after getting up too early to practice Kendo. A second in dream land and then I am back listening to the professor and attempting to take notes that might make sense when I am hurriedly looking for equations to write down for tests. If anyone knows an easy way to memorize relationships of equations dealing with Fourier Transforms or Electronics please tell me.

I am in favor of digital. Designing digital systems is so fun compared to analog. Oh those wonderful logic gates that give so many people troubles are not so fun as to love them but they are spectacularly easier than analysis of analog circuits. But in general it is hard for me to keep interest in school in general. After getting a taste of the real world by interning last summer those evenings without homework and me left to my own devices that I somehow managed to waste seem like a sweet alternative. With Kendo that I started last fall, Ping-pong and many of my other interests I do not plan to waste my evenings in following summers or when I graduate, only a few.

I really do have too much to do but I think I will have enough time tomorrow morning if I don't practice Kendo and just go to the class in the evening.

"Think constantly within yourself in your dealings with all men." Number one of nine basic attitudes for a warrior from Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi as translated by Stephen F. Kaufman. I might add that in my mind men refers to people in general since I live in a different society than Musashi.

2006-03-19T19:45:00.000-10:00

Well if I join the millions of blogs out there it's because of a great need. Yes, a need that is even bigger than needing to express myself, namely homework or as I am doing now avoiding it. This is not an assignment by anybody but it seems to me to be a good waste of time and so maybe I will continue with more posts after this.

My motivation for homework should be a lot more but is the end of spring break here in Laramie and that means the continuation of calsses which means the homework that I didn't do is due, soon. I am even now getting tired of this subject and wish that anything would spring to mind other than the impending doom of homework.

Talons and Feathers

Feeling a bit better

Motivation

Footwork for the Competitive Fencer

If Fencing, Learn to Fence!

AI Class is Really Interesting

A Fun 10k and Still Sore

Added Running, but Still Mostly Fencing

Hawaii Open February 27th and 28th

Finally Fixing Foils

Tired Fencing is Erratic

Long Time

Legs and Locomotion

Fixed Website

Hawaii Open "Postponed"

The Air We Consume

Tell-tale Twitch

The Secret to Skewering

Resetting the Counter

Footwork

Turning a New Blade

So I do have a blog...

Ahhh! Run Away! It's School Again.

Um, so Summer?

Remember children, look before you cross...

Taking Tiny Break

Two more weeks

50th Post in Over a Year and Over 306 Visitors

Difference?

Slowly Passing, Quickly Past

1 Week

Snow and More Snow

The Fun of Few Days Left

Sleep? Oops.

Long, long time, no write

The End is Here!

Three weeks, six tests

How soon will the end come?

The Day Before Tomorrow

Relaxing, Really

Fun with Electronics

Finally Settling into Winter

Interesting Things and Bad Things

Thinking

Another week...

Another week...

Another week...

Weeks, passing quickly

Teeth, ouch

A drinking game, and feet

Organizing

Survival of the somewhat fit

Half-an-hour

School

Almost a hundred different computers...

Have you had a day...

Hmmm...

Some pictures and comparisons

Long time no write

Finished but not yet Recounted

Lost and Loving It

Rainy Day

Long Day

Here and already loving it

Japan, Two Days to Go

3rd Month, nearly 30 people

A Few More Pictures

A few pictures

Exciting! ...Really.

What to do when angry...

Survived

Ah Ha!

Brighter and Darker

Hmmm...

The Second

Long　Day