Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Is It Any Wonder That I Love Kayaking?

well, just got back from the middle school lake my brother his friend the EGE and i went kayaking on the middle school lake. that was a lot of fun peace and quite and lots of people who couldn't help but stop and watch. =^) we had more people stop by to see the kayaking than we did stop by for the fencing meet. (eye roll) anyway kayaking is a lot of fun so peaceful and not only that but it is a great way to go to the fish instead of waiting for the fish to come to you.

for me kayaking and fishing go hand in hand. nothing to do but put your feet up and relax soak in the peace and silence and just unwind. why do i get such a kick out of peace and quit? because my Mom and brother are always fighting if they only have one fight i consider it a good day. so for me the chance to get away from my worry wort mom and my (every attribute that rubs the wrong way with me) brother.

to just have nothing to do or think about is about as good a vacation as i can imagine. luckily for me, we are camping in Main for a week this summer and there is a large land locked body of water which according to my aunt and uncle has excellent fishing.

so if i can slip away from the group so that i am not constantly fixing lines and baiting hooks, usually my brothers he is to squeamish to put a worm on a hook, ungratefully bum(eye roll). i should have some really good fishing and some really quality time with me myself and i. yeah i wont make the same mistake as last time and allow everyone else to dictate my schedule for me. gonna get up in the morning pack a lunch go fishing in my kayak and come back in for dinner! =^)

picktures coming later

Physics Revalation

my revolation is that Pink Floyd got most of the insperation for their songs from our Physics teacher. ;^)

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Rain Rain Here to Stay Never Ever go Away

OK as you may or may not have heard from one of my friends the whole @#$% state is flooding!!!! thanks to which we got out of school at 10 o'clock!! my back yard is usually a swamp with a foot and a half wide stream running through it right now the entire swampy part is flooding and the stream part is alternating between 4, and 8 or 9feet wide and depth maxes out around 8 to 10 inches in most places only 3 or 4 inches but still!! did i mention our buss was leaking! this is insane there are roads were you can't see the road and the storm drains just can't keep up with it all! this morning the middle school lake was at about 3 and a a half feet deep and had spread about halfway across the field. which means i am going back to middle school for a kayaking trip as soon as the rain stops!

on the down side my mom has forbidden me to go and check out our new back yard swimming pool. which is ridicules because i tested the current with a stick and despite the impressive size it is not very fast running, but my Mom, never one to listen to reason refuses to allow me this adventure. i am convinced she still believes i am 5 which is driving me insane.

swap the 2nd and third pics and you have a view of my back yard from left to right.


Monday, March 29, 2010

Problems with movie sword fights

as the direct result of being a fencer i pay particularly close attention to sword fight scenes from movies and let me tell you that is a double edged sword.

on the plus side i see amazing moves to which i can aspire to use on the strip

on the down side all of those little flaws which most people would not pick up on are blatantly obvious to me. right now i would limit myself to just three movies however anyone who is fanatical about any of the following should take this opportunity to stop reading. Star Wars, the Princess Bride, Star Trek(the new one)

all of these movies are favorites of mine but the mistakes are killing me.

First the light SABRE has no guard at all and considering the nature of the weapon anyone could slide along their opponents blade and destroy there opponents weapon and our hand also sabres are a one handed weapon not a choice between a one and two handed weapon.

then in the fight seen between Wesley and Inigo there rapiers bend about 15, 20 degrees up and down. a real rapier would not have much, if any bend to it they are stiff blades. the only blades that bend that much are fencing foils which granted also can bend more than that but they are not for fighting they are purely for sport and most often can not penetrate deeper than skin because they bend that much.

that was my only problem with the sword fighting in this movie everything else was good as far as i could see

in the new star trek movie one of those guys who does a space jump down to that platform says his combat training was fencing, but what he fights with is a katana. that is an entirely different sport altogether. not only that but he does a front flip over one of the bad guys swords. turning your back and exposing the back of your head are both major no, no's in fencing. and more importantly you never take your feet off the ground for any longer than is necessary.

if or rather when i catch more of these flaws i will tell you.

what I'm thinking

what's on my mind right now

lately i have been posting before everyone else which says a lot about our respective schedules. sry guys i feel for yah, really i do.

i am worried about how fast my fencing is going to start falling apart.

i keep wanting to exercise but am to lazy to do anything that actually looks like working out which is just about the only option in this weather. aside from vertical swimming.

i want our physics teacher to be replaced by Doctor Who.

i haven't hung out with my little cousins in ages miss those little guys.

i somehow became a senior member on the myth busters forum site which I'm not even sure means anything.

also thanks to spring cleaning i have re-discovered my floor although i still need to put everything away.

Sunday, March 28, 2010

Fencing image
























i decided it had been to long since i had posted one of these so here you go for your pleasure another fencing logo image. unfortunately despite the fact that fencing in CT is growing faster than Lacrosse. i am just about out of cool pics but i intend to keep looking.

Saturday, March 27, 2010

Spring Cleaning

my room looks like the epicenter of a nuclear explosion therefore i have decided to dedicate my day to repairing this disgusting dump and making it look like a place fit for human habitation again.

I Feel Pathetic

last night i staid up till 2:30 playing video games. Why? because I'm an idiot so in order to sleep it of i slept until 1:20 wasting most of what looks like the most beautiful day since last weekend.

which is a switch considering yesterdays weather was in the 40's. its still a little chilly but not to bad.

but the really depressing part for me is that i have basically nothing to do today. i guess i will go for a walk or something but I'm to used to waking up at 5 on Saturdays to go to a fencing meet now i have virtually no reason to go to bed to get up early and that lack of drive is slowly screwing over my sleep schedule not to mention i just don't feel tired at the end of the day anymore.

sry for complaining so much. now i am of to find something interesting to do. maybe i will bring a practice foil with me and go to the (insert name of town i live in) oak and scare the heck out of anybody who pulls in by practicing my foot and blade work in the field. nah somebody would be bound to call the police on me i and don't really need a criminal record

Thursday, March 25, 2010

They Other Amazing Blade Break

since my attempt to sound smart by using french epically failed, which considering my grades in french is not all that surprising. i deleted that post and decided to go with this instead.

Back in my first fencing related post i talked about Patrick and his amazing blade break. i also promised to talk about his second amazing blade break later on. so i decided why not now.

Pat's second & third amazing blade breaks happened at our first meet of the season that we just finished. during the course of the meet he broke 2 electric foils in exactly the same place, right below the button which was the first time i ever saw someone brake their blade in that place. but that is just what he did to both his blades even more amazing, one of the buttons was still connected to the rest of the blade by the wire. he is our one in a million blade break man. =^)

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

42

interesting cawinkydink for yah i have the strange habit of discovering my friends latest posts 42 min after they post them i think its happend 3 or 4 times in a row now, it's kinda weird. i know it is the answer to life the universe and everything but come on! besides i have my own answer to that question, maybe i will turn that into my next philosophy post. later

Philosophy: 5

"An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind"

Gandhi

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Dammit New England

Gahh! the weather was actually nice for a few days! the weather was in the 60 to 70 degree range! there was a nice cross breeze blowing across my yard! it was perfect weather for chilling out in a hammock it was really nice! but now New England weather has gone and changed its mind again! the temp is back in the 50's! and to top it all of its been raining for going on two days straight! curse you mother Nature stop screwing around with us! if you want to remind us what bonefied sunlight looks like then stop blocking out the sun! /^(

Monday, March 22, 2010

youtube link has taken sudden turn for the worse something i thought to be impossible, therfore it has been removed perminantly unless i desid that i can somehow solve the numerous problems with it

Thank you askfred

OK thanks to the website ask fred i was able to get the final standings along with other very interesting info relating to yesterdays tournament.

for starters i recognized the name of the old guy i fenced his name is Dan Marmer and even more interesting, back in 2008 he was an E ranked Fencer! that was just 2 years ago! i am even more impressed with Mr. Marmer now than i was before.

second i found out just were Austin and i finished in yesterdays competition! though i was wrong about the # of fencers yesterday there were actually 29 fencers but i was close. my final standing was 13th place and Austins was 15th. not to shabby for a couple of unranked fencers

finally even though i did not get my rematch against the guy who knocked me out at the ECC's, Josh Parry, "i know great name for a fencer right =^)" i did finish ahead of him so that's good.

this is were the post just starts going on about stuff i found interesting but is basically irrelevant so feel free to stop reading if you want to save time.

also another friend of mine who is a much better fencer than i am, Cooper, had to fence the guy who i only scored 4 points on, for his next DE bout, but before Austin and i left i told Cooper since he is a better fencer than i am he had to get more than 4 points. congratulations Cooper you managed to score 5 points, way to go! Cooper is a D rank fencer.

another interesting thing i found out was that Cam Gebhard, also a D rank, the guy who won the ECCs, beet the snot out of the guy who beet, Cooper and I yesterday. and finally Pepin, really short guy who's style is a lot like our Kevin's, took first place.

congratulations to 3 foilists (foil fencers (not sure if this is a real word or not)) who raised or reaffirmed there rank (the ranks also are listed with the year they earned it)

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Old Fencers Never Fade, They Just Burn Brighter

tired about sums up my current state. i fenced five pool bouts two of which i won. that got me the # 17 spot out of 28 fencers. which i was pretty happy with considering how good a lot of them were.

so for my first DE bout i had to fence this old guy who placed 16th now when i say old i mean OLD 60 would be a very Conservative estimate he looked more like he was 70! despite that he wasn't half bad,

I've faced worse fencers in varsity bouts and i do mean that, but its not there fault those guys are just new, wait I'm off topic.

OK right like i was saying the old guy was pretty good if i missed and stopped moving he would score so i had to rely on speed, i didn't stop moving the whole bout. aside from being slow the guy was really good final score 15 to 6 the bout was done in just under 3 min, one period. i felt pretty bad about beating the old guy but i was happy to keep fencing.

anyway that's why the title, because that guy really impressed me, you could tell that when he was younger he was really good, and the fact that someone in there 70's is still fencing, and that well was more impressive to me than the C ranked guy i fenced for my second DE bout. hope when I'm that old i can still fence.

the C ranked guy i fenced was insanely good he beet me 15 to 4 in just over 3 min it was all i could do to hold him off that long he almost got the last point before the buzzer. His infighting was unbelievable! every time in almost the exact same spot!still though, i feel like i improved so I'd say it was a good day, after the 2 hour ride home i collapsed on the couch and started watching Aliens on SYFY the cat then came over and plopped down on my chest were she has staid for the past hour or so i spent writing this post.

Stupid youtube link

well the YouTube link is mostly functional but it still shows that guy with the guitar, who i am dreadfully sick of looking at, from time to time, and as a down side to coach Ashly's YouTube screen name it is also showing some Inuyasha videos which i can't get rid of.

well i am writing this at 5:43 in the morning and setting it to post itself at 12 by which time i will either be fencing or have finished fencing at the small tournament i am attending with Austin.

hope i don't end up fencing him that would make quite the awkward 2 hour ride back no matter who won. but then again we both fence better in competitions and i have always wanted to fence Austin at his absolute best especially since i haven't fenced him at his best since we fenced for the varsity spot back during the season and i think i caught him of guard back then.

well i guess that's it for now i'll tell you all how it went when i get back. later.

Friday, March 19, 2010

Philosophy: 4

"The Difference Between a Persons Fantasies and their Reality is their Morality"

unless someone else said it first this one comes from yours truly

Grinding

yeah well i figured that would get your attention. well here is the scoop i went to that stupid black out dance and regretted almost every second of it at first it was kind of cool lots of hot girls and all.

i ran into Laura and here Friends dodged several hug attacks and screwed around with a glow stick for a while that was interesting. especially when some weirdo started doing something that resembled a seizure standing up right next to me.

so i tried walking away from him and when that didn't work i did what any fencer armed with a glow stick would have done and swung it at the loser but when he didn't take the hint and leave me alone i actually got serious about making my point and hitting the loser.

i got him under his left arm just below the rib cage and I'm willing to bet it wasn't pleasant on the other hand it is nigh on impossible to parry with a glow stick and i am used to only worrying about right of way which allowed the jerk to whip my arm with his glow stick and i now have a huge welt on my arm ending in a patch of broken skin

then i had nothing to do really except walk around and watch people dance i can't tell you how many times i started kicking myself for not just getting out there and dancing but for some reason everyone there thinks dancing means grinding, which just isn't me especially not with some person i barely know.

i can't explain it there is just something in me that kept saying there is something fundamentally wrong with this so i could not relax and ended up walking around like and idiot for 3 hours and now my knees hurt.

so yeah basically i just reminded myself why i hate dances. new rules of thumb if you are going to go to a dance then either bring a date or a wing man, or be one of those people who like grinding.

Paper Airplanes

For the past three days in physics this guy Nate something or other has been making paper airplanes out of halls cough drop rappers (man i wish this had a grammar check) and chucking them at the back of my head.

so today when i had been hit and then had captured the enemy plane i waited for just the right moment to deploy. rather than send it straight back into enemy hands or attempt to send it were they could not retrieve it, as i had done in the past, i decided to use this one, which i had observed to fly in an incredible straight line. to vent some of my frustration towards our Physics teacher Mr. pleasure from our frustration/confusion.

i waited until he was standing directly behind and this kid in my class who was helpfully and unknowingly blocking me from view and then aiming just above the kids ear i launched the plain. it flew straight and true, although my aim was slightly low and to they inside. first it grazed the side of the kids head but only just because it continued on to hit my real target professor knucklehead.

as an added bonus paper airplanes are now a major no, no in physics so not only did i get my own bit of satisfaction but i have effectively neutralized the enemy airforce indefinitely

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Fencing Obama



alright i know i have already done two posts today but this is an emergency post, when i found this i knew i could not wait until tomorrow to post it.

i found the pic on USFA.com under fencing in this Olympic fencers blog that is somehow on there site without being separate. apparently they went to the white house, did a demo,

and they held a light saber duel with the president which they had no choice but to lose on purpose or run the risk of the secret service thinking it was an assassination attempt!

OK i admit it, i made up that last bit. but come on how could i resist =^D

this could totaly be our recruiting slogan for next year "President Barack Obama likes fencing why don't you? Join the Fencing Team"

or how about this one "Have You Thought about Fencing? NO! Well it's Time for a Change"

Fencing Fact: 14

yes i finally came up with a new one and it is actually good! this one i heard from Coach Floyd. the sport fencing,(pretty sure he meant foil fencing but not 100% sure) as apposed to sword fighting, was invented by the upper class back when that actually mattered, meaning castles and whatnot were still being used for there original purpose instead of for attracting tourists.

back then the rich prided themselves on having super clean hands. not just free of dirt but of scars and calluses and everything. (lazy, wimps) anyway so the idea was they only used just as much energy as was required which is why foil fencing became all about finesse.

make the smallest parry required to remove the threat, beet just hard enough to take right of way, find and take the shortest route to the target area. basically make all of your movements as small as humanly possible. so despite the fact that those people were rich, snooty, jerks, i thank them for creating what i consider to be the most amazing sport ever.

well

OK two things, one i have my first follower who i don't actually know hooray! anyway i checked out her/your blog and i must admit i got a little confused, but it is always nice to meet a fellow bookworm. i got the impression you lean more towards classics than anything else. the only classic i have ever read, in it's original form, is Sherlock Holmes which is taking forever to get through. though i have read many other classics in children's format when i was like 13 or 14.

2nd Lora, a friend of the EGE, mandachan and i guess me even though i don't know her all that well, has her own blog now, its called, ooh shiny, the reason i haven't mentioned it sooner was because i have no idea how to embed a link, still don't so you will have to stop being lazy and check out the site by scrolling down to the list of blogs i follow, unless the link embeds itself automatically when i typed in the name of the blog, which i doubt, especially since i probably got some kind of capitalization type thing wrong.

lets see anything else? oh right i am trying something new with the youtube link well see how it works out

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

ummmm

well i have to admit i am running out of things about which to blog with the season over my inspiration and source of amazing fun facts is running short if not dry. on the upside of things i have just remembered another fun fact to be posted at a later date, and Austin Walker offered to give me a lift to a small non school tournament this Sunday that i will most likely be attending i checked out the list of people who registered ahead of time i know several of them. one of them is the guy who knocked me out in my first DE bout at the ECC's hope i get a rematch.

more importantly though there will be several E, D, and even C, ranked fencers attending about half a dozen total that should make things interesting especially since on my best day i might just be able to pull of a lucky win against an E ranked fencer with a bad head cold. but seriously any ranked fencer is out of my league when fencing at there best i hope that i can improve enough to change that by next year but the odds are against that unless i can practice more regularly.

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Let the Good Times Role

hey i finally got my laptop back from the geek squad which means my Internet is back to normal speed along with the rest of my computer necessities so no more massive delays do to equipment, whoopie!

Monday, March 15, 2010

I Miss Fencing =^(

it has been, i don't know either one or two weeks since fencing ended and it feels like it was part of a different life already. despite that i am still magically transported to cloud nine whenever i think about the amazing time i had at states. just thinking about it gets my adrenaline flowing all over again, and puts that warm nothing can hold me back feeling in my gut. you know in Harry Potter how they need to think of happy moment to do a patronus or however you spell it? that would be my happy moment.

some people jump out of airplanes for an adrenaline rush but let me tell you i will never need to leave the ground for the adrenaline rush of a lifetime. there is something incredible about fencing against an opponent on your level when you are so deep in the zone that all you know is how best to react to your opponent, and how to best attack your opponent, it gives me an adrenaline rush like you wouldn't believe, and then when you win, oh man, it is the greatest feeling in the world. it is 4 parts pent up emotion, 5 parts triumph, and 1 part adrenaline.

that is y Kevin always yells YES when he gets a touch, but for me i don't shout my victory until the bout is over and then only for really close, really good, bouts but then the good bouts are usually close. and the only reason i don't shout sooner is because i just don't think to do so until after i win.

their are probably even more amazing feelings out there in the world but not many and none that i have ever experienced, the closest i can think of is when you are a little kid and your parents are genuinely, blown away proud, of something you have done in my case that would be winning the science fair back in 5th grade. by the way EGE you could have won several science fairs if you would have done projects that weren't all about statistics.

alright this has been way to long a post and i have gotten of topic more than once already so i will stop eating up your time heheh i just couldn't stop typing =^) sry.

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Points of Clarification

in "you need to read this! 3" i emphasized how hard it was to keep track of the characters but after some recent thinking back i realized that the characters i kept getting mixed up were the 2 main characters and that the reason i kept confusing them was because they had nearly identical personality's so if you can keep those two straight you are golden.

and in my last post i talked about Card building the plot around a new disease the more accurate way of saying it would be new epidemic. which without treatment has a 30 to 50% mortality rate.

also the YouTube link at the bottom of the side bar appears to work unless you leave the home page, or click on something or do nothing at all, in which cases it is just 4 completely irrelevant video's which so far i can do nothing about.

You Need To Read This! 4

man a whole day without a post, now i know the season is over.

right the book this time is a direct follow up to last time, Hidden Empire by Orson Scott Card. with this one Card has out done himself, picking up the plot three years after the end of the first book Card masterfully weaves a fantastic plot around the arising of a hypothetical new disease.

Card writes out a scenario that anyone can see would be the only logical only intelligent thing for America to do under the crisis. another thing that i picked up on with this book is a recurring theme of Cards, one that i first found in the Enders game books and listed away under the necessary qualitys for a leader.

The recurring theme I'm talking about is that in order for a man or woman to be a good leader they must have empathy so that he or she can understand the people he or she leads, and in order for someone to be a good military leader they must have enough empathy that they can understand their enemy, and because of that predict there enemy's actions, but not to much empathy or they won't be able to do what is required of a soldier and kill the enemy.

Friday, March 12, 2010

More Than Slightly Annoyed

OK i spent the last hour trying and fail ling to make a slide show of all the fencing related pics that i have. i did manage to get a YouTube link that actually has video of some of us blindfold fencing, but the bottom two videos are completely irrelevant. and half the time it switches to these four absolutely irrelevant videos and i have no idea why or how it keeps doing that but i wish it would knock it off.

but about the slide show thing apparently you can not just add whatever pics you want you have to go through one of these random sights so i made a flicker account (was really easy since i have yahoo mail and flicker is an off shoot of them) then i get all the relevant pics on it, type in the user name to try and bring up the pics for the slide show, instead i got a bunch of kindergarten level drawings.

i spent another 20 min trying to fix it before i gave up and removed the slide show from the blog. and if the video's continue to be a pain i will most likely remove them to. So now i am more than slightly annoyed and tired. night, or rather almost morning, everyone. =^/

Mehh

my brother and his culprits in crime, and stupidity, have taken over the basement and with it my brother's X-box, which i was plesently surprised to find that i actualy have fairlly decent acess to, and my Play Station 2. so i am shut out from all video game based fun and the level which i had almost beaten i will have to start over from the begining, no big deal it wasn't tht hard anyway. so now that i have exhousted my store of dailly complaints i have another fencing pic for you all. wonder where i can get one of these?

Thursday, March 11, 2010

You Need to Read This! 3

Wow it has been a while since i posted one of these. hmm oh well, the book this time is Empire by Orson Scot Card. after reading as many of the Enders Game books as i could get my hands on let me tell you very few of them were close to as good as Enders Game the best being well never mind i said it in my last one of these post's the point is that after all those SHADOWS (bad pun i couldn't resist making) of Cards ability this book surprised me by being really, really good.

seriously close to on level with Enders Game. Card does a great job of taking world politics of modern day and twisting them with what ifs. the whole idea is that America is thrown into a revolution, and while the real mastermind behind it all is never revealed or at least certain, a small special ops unit springs into action without orders risking being hung for treason by both sides. they then face the entire country as they fight to defeat the bad guys and avoid being captured by the good guys who for all they know are the bad guys that haven't declared it yet.

my only problem with this book is that the names Card chooses are both unusual and at the same time easy to get mixed up, making the story rather aggravating to follow, especially considering how he goes from one point of view to the next. (really that makes the story more interesting but does nothing to make keeping track of names easier) the ideas Card puts forward are revolutionary, new, and exciting, read the book i promise it will keep you on the edge of your seat just be sure to write down who everyone is as you go along or you will get hopelessly lost.

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Curse you Sean

Sean is my brother and he is also everything i detest well OK he is alright but there are things about him that i detest. for example while i prefer a small group of close friends, my brother is a member of the popular crowd. in fact right now there are at least a dozen of his friends clogging up our front yard for the second time today and he isn't even here! OK so they didn't stay very long after i told them Sean wasn't here but it really pisses me off, i prefer quite, he prefers noise, i prefer fencing, he prefers dirt bikes, i prefer Mythbusters, he prefers Friends, don't get me wrong i like Friends but not the same 25 episodes over and over again for two months.

My brother wouldn't know logic if it bit him in the ass, and here i am reading Sherlock Holmes and every now and then guessing the ending before it happens. when we go fishing my brother can't sit still long enough to put a worm on the hook (of course that's partly because he is to squeamish to do it) but i can just sit for an hour without a bite just relaxing in the sun before i lose my patience and I'm ADD and he isn't.

Oh and did i mention he ends most of our conversations with the sentence "Whatever don't talk to me" and that includes the conversations he starts! man he can be a pain in the ass

Random Day

hey everyone the TV is finally working with me instead of against me i found monster quest on discovery today thank you discovery, i woke up at 7:30 then again at 9 then again just a few minuets before 11 when i finally got up and made myself blueberry pancakes. my to do list for the day is homework draft something good to put on the announcement boards (a.k.a. big waste of electricity and money in general) for fencing, hall a bunch of stick into the woods behind my house, and hopefully find time to play some video games so i had better get started.

oh yeah and i am finally out of interesting fencing facts, at least for the time being, i may have to start digging into the rule book in order to find anything interesting, sigh i was hoping to never ever read that thing because it is the second largest rule book in the world, third if you count Calvin Ball (if you don't know read Calvin & Hobbes) but bottom line is that it will take me forever to read even just the section on foil fencing.um guess that's it for today later all.

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Another Cool Pic


Hey this is the second in what i hope will be a long line of cool fencing pic's, whenever i do an image search i keep my eyes open for more cool stuff like this. and hey can i get an opinion? anyone think this would make a better profile image than what i am using right now? Yes, No, Maybe so? actually never mind i like my Fencing Jolly Roger profile image :)X

Fencing Fact: 12

Have you ever seen the guard of a really old rapier? take a look sometime you will know you have found one when you find a guard that another blade could easily slip through because it is made up of a bunch of twisty pieces of metal making an intricate and attractive piece. this was designed so that a master swordsman could actually allow his opponents blade through the guard and then by turning his or her wrist trap it, from there he or she could bend the blade until it broke or speed up the same process with a blow from their knife. this insanely dangerous technique would deprive their opponent of a weapon and give them a huge advantage. the reason i call it dangerous is because behind the guard is your hand which is as vital to a fencer as it is to a surgeon not only that if you get the timing wrong by even a fraction of a second your opponents attack will land. today all of our Foil guards are a standard circle of metal that is in no way capable of pulling of this feet. probably because foils aren't cheep and depriving your opponent of his weapon is poor sportsmanship.

Telivision: the endless disapointment

I believe humanity has finally lost all its creativity and or intelligence. there is literally nothing on TV these days i remember when i was 7 or 8 i could sneak down to the basement and watch either something violent on cartoon network something funny on Nickelodeon or something interesting on animal planet or discovery

now, most times i turn the TV on, get disgusted, and turn it off again. Cartoon network is doing dumb shows with kids in them and playing Pokemon whatever there up to now reruns, and the only good thing on Nickelodeon is Spongbob, ever since the crocodile hunter died animal planet has gone to the dogs, hahaha sorry couldn't resist the pun. =^) and discovery only plays stuff worth watching at night

not to mention my personnel favorite Chanel SciFi sorry i mean SYFY, cant tell you how many people are pissed about that by the way, has chosen to play a bunch of cruddy movies morning noon and night, instead of playing the vast repertoire of TV shows which they have at there disposal and which are infinitely more interesting and exciting then the movies they play. by the way SYFY i hate horror movies (only kind you ever play) and for the record half those movies don't even qualify as science fiction!

Monday, March 8, 2010

Philosophy: 3

don't ask what the future holds, knowing takes all the surprises out of life and leaves nothing but boredom

Paraphrase from more than one of the Dune saga (Frank Herbert) i couldn't find the original quote and besides which he said it in more than one way

Looking Back and Ahead is Giveing me Double Vision

Hey, we had our last practice for the season today. just a fun last practice. Zack was supposed to bring in the video he shot of as at States but he forgot. i got to try Epee fencing today and decide that i would not be doing epee fencing next year mostly because i suck at it and i want to focus on my foil fencing. =^) anyway i had a pretty good time today, got tired and lost my edge at the end and ended up losing to Pat (will not let that happen next year Pat)

right, now, about the title starting with looking back. highlights of the year are two categories personnel and team.
Team we CRUSHED NFA at team states this is big because NFA's Coach trained our Coach to fence, so NFA is basically our arch enemy. in a completely friendly competitive way of course. =^) the guys and girls made it to states wear guys took 5th and girls took 8th, Kylie was a trooper and fenced for about a month with broken fingers, Kylie subbed for the girls Varsity saving the day on more than one occasion even though it was her first year of fencing and on at least one of those occasions she had a busted finger.

Austin came back expecting to knock me out of what he thought was his varsity spot only to find that in his absence some things had changed mainly that i was no longer a simpering little substitute. hahaha Kevin despite failing Math was never kicked of the Team and finished the season. in hindsight if we did not have Kevin we would not have maid it to states so all in all i guess it is a good thing.

on the personnel side i have two new rivals that i am about even with Won-He and Cristian and as for the time being i am ahead on wins against both of them. =^) also i made it all the way to state teams were i ended the season on a high note with the final win of the year for our guys and it was against one of my rivals Cristian in the closest bout i have had all year.

looking ahead is even better though, East Lyme the 2nd best team in the State and the best team in the ECC's is graduating it's entire guys varsity team this year which is our biggest threat neutralized. NFA our arch rivals have one good fencer (Won-He) who everyone except Tim has beaten and some of there varsity are (we believe) graduating, Bacon Academy will have Cooper, Crazy good, Cristian, my level, and a guy named Max, who is frankly in over his head, + whoever they manage to recruit for next year. the other teams can't touch us. haha (fencing pun) which means that next year our guys varsity basically own that beautiful ECC banner that we want so very badly. and if the winds blow in our favor we may even take 1st place at States.

so until October when conditioning starts up again i will be, for the most part bored out of my mind! maybe now that i actually have free time again i can work on getting a girl friend like a normal teenager. i have no idea how to make an appropriate emoticon for this. anyone know how to do a slightly embarrassed slightly flirty emoticon?

Shout Out

You are probably wondering what this is about right? well it has come to my attention that some guy named Josh H. and a person who refers to his or herself as the Unknown Ninja have been fallowing at least some of my blog posts. how do i know this? well i did a search for my blog on google and the links to my blog came up. =^) kind of a simple trick really but the point is that i wanted to thank you guys for following and advertising my blog.

i couldn't do it on your sights because i don't have accounts on twitter or whatever that other one was so i decided to just make a post out of it. it is good to know that people out there like what i have to say, no offense, Amandachan, EGE, i know you guys read my posts but if i had to guess half the time you are as lost reading my stuff as i get reading the EGE's rocket related posts and i have no doubt that i will soon be utterly confused by your blog too Amandachan seeing as baseball season is starting and the # of player specific everything is going to fly through the roof. oh right like i was saying before thanks for reading. =^)

Sunday, March 7, 2010

my bad

hey i was doing a little reseach and i realized that my statement about the target area for sabre in fencing fact # whatever was incorect. i have edited the post if anyone wants to know the actual target area for sabre fencing. sry everyone.

Fencing Fact: 11

Fencing used to be done with a sword and a dagger style knife. However i am not sure if that was just how they fought duels to the death or if that was ever actually part of the sport, or for that matter if it is just a concept that Hollywood cooked up years back and is now generally accepted as being accurate because it has been seen too many times in bad movies. If anyone knows the truth of this matter i would love for them to leave me a comment to clear up the subject because i am seriously not sure about this one. That said fencing with a long and short blade would make the sport much more difficult, and much more interesting. Unfortunately it would also make refing nearly if not completely impossible and therfore will never happen.

Beutiful Day

hey the weather outside is fantastic for the 2nd time in at least 3 or 4 months, the first time was yesturday, but i am stuck inside doing the cursed spawn of hell known only as homework. as soon as i am finished with it i am going for a bike ride now if you will excuse me i should get started so that it is still light out when i go for that bike ride.

Saturday, March 6, 2010

States

OK just in case you only want the final standings and not the highlights the guys (Kevin Austin and I) finished in 5th place after being destroyed by Grenich, they got first place, and then crushing NFA and Bacon Academy!!!!! 5th in the state!!!!! OK the girls (Sarah D. Kylie, Bronwin) did not do as well they ended in 8th but hey 8th in the state is still more than impressive. =^) No i don't know who they fenced i was busy parry riposting at the time. highlights for the day Sarah W. was absent today because she was rushed to the hospital last night. she is fine, she was having painful muscle spasms in her side but they gave her a muscle relaxant which apparently solved the problem. i got to fence NFA's Won-He for the third time today and won 5-4! =^) i like fencing Won-He he is really good, not at all a sore looser, and always very good mannered when he wins. right now the score between us is two wins me one win him not bad if i do say so myself. i also got my much wanted rematch against Cristian of Bacon, we have also fenced three times and i have also won two of our three bouts one of which i might add was a 15 point bout, i met him the same day i met Won-HE. (JV invitational at the start of the season) now that was one hell of a bout and so close too!! the final score was me 3, Cristian 2. i got my third point in the last 10 sec. then Cristian had 6 sec to try and even the score which would have taken us into overtime. i did a pasot de sotos (Spanish guy from the princes bride does one when he kills the last guard in the hallway) i really like pasot de sotos because, well never mind I'm getting of topic, i will post about them some other time. point is his blade ran the length of my non sword arm without going of and mine passaid to his left under his arm, but it didn't matter that neither of the buzzers went of because by the time we both realized what had happend time had run out! and that was the end of the bout with me up by one! but wait it gets better when i won that bout it gave us enough wins that even if they won all the other bouts we still would win so that was our last bout of the day and of the season!!! that's right, what was without a doubt one of my best bouts all year ended the season and secured for us the fifth place spot!!! OK if i had lost one of the other guys would have finished things up anyway but, i still won the very last bout of the season too take home fifth place for our guys varsity!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! =^D =^D =^D i like fencing Cristian almost if not more than i like fencing Won-He because not only are we almost if not perfectly matched on skill but are stiles are similar too. where as Won-He mostly does a lot of fleshes. (man i need to start doing posts about technical terms so that i don't feel obligated to explain mid post) OK back on topic again the plug for one of my foils bent out during a bout and had to be replaced that cost me 5 bucks aw well. now on a more impressive note one of the girls varsity fencers competing today was an A ranked fencer to put this in perspective Kevin is only D ranked. (ranks are A through E) she was off her game though today because apparently she hurt her leg last week or something but this was good for our girls varsity because thanks to her injury Bronwin was able to beet her!!!!!!!!! Bronwin is good by most girls varsity standards but beating an A ranked fencer even an injured one is an incredible accomplishment and this one was ranked 8th (in either the country or the state i am pretty sure it was the country though because an A ranked girl in Connecticut would probably be the best girl in the State) and Sarah D. was able to get two points on the same girl. well lets see now back on the personnel note side of things Proprintwear, the people who sell t-shirts and bumper stickers and junk, were there today! which means i was finally able to get my "Death Before Dishonor" shirt and i also got a States shirt. this brings my collection of fencing shirts up to five. oh and because of the size of the tournament we were only there until about 1 o'clock which is a record breaker for us with the ride home we were back by 2:30. and get this coach wants me to get back on the PA this week and announce how well we did at states! =^) right, we did not get a trophy, we did not get a plaque, we did not even get a crummy certificate saying guys took fifth place and girls took 8th, but you know how it is. so lets see i wrapped up the season with an amazing win to secure fifth place, we re-asserted the fact that next year we are going to dominate the ECC's and possibly even states (because of all the seniors graduating), i get to go back on the PA, we all got new t-shirts, and we all had some amazing wins, and or bouts today. FENCING RULES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Friday, March 5, 2010

Preparing for War

OK so it's an exaggeration, deal with it. right now i am icing both my knees because for the past week they have been giving me hell but i iced them yesterday and today they weren't as bad. hm whats that? how am i icing both my knees and typing at the same time well i bagged up ice and tied it to my knees with a pair of my long fencing socks that i found lying around. makes me look incredible stupid but hey it works and leaves my hands free. so what exactly goes into preparing for a big meet you ask well lets see eat carbohydrates drink lots of water, wash your gear Thursday so you have a chance to break it in again on Friday re-tape and test all your blades check body cords find everything you need for the next day put it wear you can find it charge i-pod and cell phone pack cash pack water bottle pack gear double check gear set alarm make sure alarm is not set for PM (Austin Walker this means you) then you have to make sure you have headphones for your i-pod (Kevin and Sarah W.) and since if i want to eat breakfast tomorrow i need to get up at 4:50 ish you have to have everything ready before 8 or 9 o'clock if you want to get enough sleep. OK it is late and you know what i need to keep wrestling with my slow as molasses compooper so that i can get some new songs on my i-pod for tomorrow. so last thoughts we are right now ranked 8th at ECC's but i know we can beet NFA at the very least and Austin is convinced that we can beet this other team that will be there so i think we have decent odds besides if these teams have one great fencer and then two that are ok or decent or terrible we could really go far! =^)

Thursday, March 4, 2010

Fencing Fact: 10

OK this is less Serious than the fencing facts i have done in the past. OK it is down right comic but believe me you will love it. there are bumper stickers ect that you can buy for fencing and it just so happens that they have a bumper sticker for each of the previously outlined fencing styles (Foil, Epee, Sabre) now the Sabre one really isn't all that funny so I'm not going to bother typing it up but here are the other 2.

Foil Fencers Do It With Finesse

Epee Fencers Touch All Over

Just a little good, dirty, fencing humor ;^)

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Fecning Fact: 9

There are three types of fencing:

Foil: this style requires the most precision and finesse, the target area goes from the shoulders down to crotch, excluding arms and legs. In order to score you must have right of way.

Epee: this style of fencing is much simpler, anywhere on your opponent is on target and i believe (might be mistaken) both fencers can score a point during one action.

Sabre: the most brutal of the three, in Sabre you can score with both the point and the blade which means you can slash, which hurts.the target area is everything from the head down to the waist line including arms and the sword arm wrist but not including the hand.

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Awsome Pic


i found this picture while doing random fencing related searches online. Yes i really am that obsessed with the sport. anyway apparently the artist drew it up after their brother won his first big fencing turnament. i wanted to use it as my profile image but it got shrunken and it just didn't do it justice that way so here it is. (click on pic to make it bigger)

Philosophy #2

"Power attracts the corruptible"

Frank Herbert

All Around Super Amazing Day!!!

hey you read the title and what could make a fencing nut who's season just ended this happy well i guess i should tell you. Today i got my braces off!!!! =^D came home spent the next 2 hours doing homework that was do today that i was to tired to do yesterday then i went back to school for the last 5 min. of class because my mom said that i had top go to school if i wanted to go to our last practice. so i go in get my pass go to class and within thirty seconds Morgan Ross figures out that i got my braces of (Eagle Eye Award) so then i am out of there run upstairs to get the math homework and hand in what was do. that done i run to fencing for our last practice where we find out the girls finished 7th (as a team not as individuals) and therefore being in the top 8 they are going to Team States!!! =^D this was totally unexpected! now immediately after that coach turns on us guys and starts talking about how we did not do as well. and then he says in this long drawn out way of his that he uses when he messes with us, "They only made 8th place"!!!!!!! =^D our Guys and Girls both qualified for State Teams!!!!!!! =^D so we have another week of practice and this Saturday we are going to Fairfield for state teams!!!! oh and my final ranking from state individuals was 37th place out of 70 some odd fencers!!!!=^D so lets see no more braces, another week of practice, our team is going to states for guys and girls and at state individuals i placed in the upper half. i don't think this day could get any better!!!!!!!! =^D oh and tomorrow i have 4+ hours to sit in the cafeteria do homework and brag about the fencing team too anyone who will listen while the freshman and sophomores are stuck taking CAPT Tests. so tomorrow looks to be a good day as well. =^)