Shut up and fence!

that's my matto which is why the next time I fence Austin I intend to duct tape his mouth shut I understand why he does what he does but while it is good for all of us to have a better understanding of the rules examining each touch in extreme detail inhibits ones ability to fence at their best (in my case anyway) so from now on I only fence people who keep the talking to a minimum.

also I was off my game today just plain and simple was not parrying, which is not good.

First Day of Practice

have very little to report except that I should probably get some sleep which will be difficult seeing as it's been 4 hours and I'm still hyped up on excitement and possibly adrenaline. my one note for today other than we need more fencers is that today I was not only in the zone, I WAS THE ZONE. I blew away Austin and Tim today 5/1 and 5/0 respectively that's right bagel! if I can keep this up my chances for varsity are looking good!

oh unrelated side note, I got all my homework done before 11 tonight! yeah!

Debates

The only thing I have learned from debates is that my knowledge of history is limited at best and nonexistent at worst, and I really don't care. History is not half as interesting or as exciting as fiction, and honestly too learn enough about any section of history to be truly knowledgeable you need to read at least three books and usually more than that. With science I can read one book or watch one show and understand the concept behind just about anything and go from there. It's so much easier for me and I don't have the time to read three books about every major point of dispute in history. So I stick to my specialty's which are fiction and science. I can analyse fiction and I can understand science, so I'll stick to those and my personal morals and philosophy's.

Walking Away

If anything is gauranteed to piss me off it is having an adult especially a family member talk down to me like I'm some stupid kid who doesn't understand their responsibilities.

I'm not a kid. yes every kid says that, and they say it again and again and again, at some point it becomes true. even if I'm not an adult, I am certainly not a kid anymore.

So when anyone talks to me like a kid that is a huge insult to my pride. I need my pride. to throw it away would be to throw myself away and become a brain dead vegatable.

So what do I do? I walk away. I'm not going to sit there and be insulted. and they wouldn't get it even if I explained it so I walk away. if they find that insulting, to F'ing bad. That just makes us even.

Confidential Confessions

that's the name of a manga which just became my favorite book of all time. It's a series which focuses on major issues that apply to modern day teenagers. I've read three story arks so far the first one was about suicide and made me super depressed the second was about teenage prostitution and that one left me with feelings that were a mixture of sadness and hope. the third one was about sexual harassment and it carried me from begging to end on a whirlwind of emotion. you want proof that manga are more than just comic books go to manga fox read "Confidential confessions" volume 2 "Tears" even though it's from a girls POV this is still the most emotionally moving piece of fiction I have ever read.

my English teacher talked about how people are moving toward the instant gratification of images and away from imagination and books. well this manga uses images to make it's message more powerful. that's just it they are not just out there for kids they are amazing literary and artistic masterpieces that should be respected and acknowledged. not condemned as comic books.

are some of them crap? duh but aren't some books crap as well? how many dime store novels with only slightly different fantasy plots revolving around a knight dragon and princess are there in this world? some of the more popular ones are praised like the lord of the rings and Eragon, well the Japanese produced plenty of series with action and plots that are twenty times as original. I dare you to find me a novel about pirates as good as one piece or a fantasy about magic as good as fairy tale, ok hairy potter maybe but fairy tale makes me lough more. most people don't appreciate that. then again most people don't even read. and there I go off on another rant again.

sorry I guess I'm just venting over the fact that manga aren't more widely excepted. but whatever I'm not gonna let any ones opinion change my reading preference.

Autogenic Training

My coach lent me a book called preparing the mind. it's all about Autogenic Training or AT. the simplest way to describe AT is to call it self hypnosis. though that is an inaccurate description. it's more of a calming technique because the idea is that if you do it properly it's supposed to help you re-energize, and do everything perfectly.

so far I've been able to relax my muscles, make my arms and legs, and solar plexus (area below the rib cage aparently) feel warm, focus on my breathing and feel my own heart beet without taking my pulse which is a bonus because I suck at finding my pulse.

I still can't get the hang of making my limbs feel heavy, and have had only limited success at making my forehead feel cool. I also need to learn the part about coming out of it and feeling energized because so far most of my attempts have ended with me falling asleep. I have yet to feel the boost of energy or feel extremely refreshed. then again I have yet to try it when I feel physically exhausted.

My other big problem is that I'm supposed to practice it 3 times a day at the same times every day and only practice for 2 or 3 min. right now getting to a point I feel comfortable calling a good result takes more than three minutes. I just tried it a few min. ago in learning lab and it took me 7+ min. to go through my slightly messed up version of autogenic training.

I think my problem is that I don't feel right about moving on to the next stage until I achieve the desired result for earlier steps also it's easier to feel my heart beet after going through the other steps. I end up spending a lot of time on the part about making your arms and legs feel warm. however once my arms and legs do feel warm, making my solorplexis, feel warm is really easy and once that happens I start feeling my heart beat without even thinking about it.

but I still have problems with the "my face is cool", "my body is heavy" and "my body feels re-energized". those just aren't working out yet, but never fear I'll get there yet.

gotta work on reducing the time required to a minimum, preferably less than 60 seconds. that way I can make use of this in 15 touch bouts. I also need to work on memorizing the autogenic phrases.

tourny results

there were 16 fencers. but nobody got ranked for strange reasons beyond our understanding. Austin placed First Tim placed 2nd Bronwynne placed 6th and yours truly came in third. =) kept track of my scores and things I need to work on will probably edit this post later to tell the whole story and relate scores in the meantime i have to go post on my Internet duel and see who is winning =).

Edit:

OK so I'm winning my Internet duel both in total average and in highest average. true we only just started the duel a few days ago, and the total number of tournaments is three, and only one of those is mine, but I'm happy with that regardless. =)

I believe the reason no one got ranked was actually because there were no ranked competitors which no one could do anything about because it was a novice tournament to begin with. in other words ranked fencers were not allowed to compete.

I came in third at the tournament because I lost to Tim in the semifinals but it was all good because we both enjoyed the match. on the other hand i did not actually get to fence for third place so third place was actually a tie because they did not hold the bout which i was ripped about because I wanted to keep fencing.

I'll post some of the pics that i got from my coach over the 4 day weekend so look forward to them.