Long time, no post. I've been sadly inactive in SCA things, but at least I have a new D&D game going to provide some blog fodder.
I’ve had six sessions with my new D&D group, now. They’re on a quest inspired by Monty Python and the Holy Grail to recover a goblet sacred to Dionysus. So far, they’ve dealt with snarky guards, a body collector, and taunting kobolds.
My players are not an extremely experienced group, as shown by little things they don’t do. For instance, they defeated an evil priest and his undead minions (a big fight that earned them a lot of experience points) and looted the bodies, but they didn’t look around for where the priest was sleeping. Note to players: your adversaries don’t necessarily carry all of their valuables on them at all times. Too late to go back for them now, though; that’s another important lesson. If you don’t find the loot, someone else soon will.
They also don’t map. I’m surprised that it hasn’t occurred to at least one member of the group (the one who has the most gaming experience) that they really ought to keep some kind of map of where they’ve been. So far, they’ve relied on the druid’s animal companion to lead them out of mazes by following their scent trail.
But I’m sure at least one member of the group will read this and consider it.
Remember: Being genre savvy typically works in your favor in my campaign.
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Medieval Weapons Technique
This is just cool stuff. Around 1:19, you see why the period masters considered quarterstaff technique to be the core of all polearm technique.
Tuesday, March 08, 2011
The Resistance
Julia's band at the YEAH Rock Block show case in Murfreesboro, TN, on February 27, 2011.
And again on March 4, 2011.
And again on March 4, 2011.
Monday, February 28, 2011
Another “Evolution Requires Faith” Claim
Observed in a wall post and responses on Facebook. We’ll call the creationist CW.
Berkley has a nice website on the subject, if you care to read it. The short of it, though, is that we don’t need faith to see that bird wings evolved. We don’t know everything about how it occurred, but we do have the intermediate forms (despite the denials of creationists), and we continue to learn more as we discover more fossils.
I’d love to know where she got this notion that “non-creationist microbiologists” are refuting evolution based on DNA. DNA is one of the great pieces of supporting evidence in favor of evolution, and unique variations in every living being are expected and in fact necessary for evolution to work. Sure it’s a “new creature”, but it’s not so different that it’s no longer the same species. It takes many generations for populations of creatures to diverge that much.
And of course Evolution is a theory. Learn what “theory” means to a scientist! It’s an explanation for a set of observations that is consistent with the evidence. A theory makes predictions that can be tested, and its predictions are consistent with reality.
A creationist friend of CW chimed into the thread to help defend it. We’ll call the friend HP.
Of course, if they actually learned the Theory of Evolution instead of listening to creationist sound-bites, they might realize that it’s accurate, and they wouldn’t want that! I expect that's why creationists routinely ignore attempts to actually teach them something about evolutionary biology.
CW: “I was thinking about DNA and genes and how every feature of every creature has its own genetic code. I wonder what evolutionist would say whether or not there is a DNA code a genetic code for the in between species, such as. the code for a wing and a leg are different: what does the "in-between" leg look like? Is the code muddied? How is THAT a step in the direction of evolving perfection?! Silly evolutionists: your version takes more faith to believe in than MINE does!”Some friends of mine made an effort to explain, but the author wasn’t really listening. The answer to the question is not so simple, since there are many steps between a leg and a wing. Bird wings developed from the forelimbs of dinosaurs (specifically dromaeosaurs), and there are many known species of dinosaur that were essentially bipedal, leaving their forelimbs free to evolve toward other tasks. The “in-betweens” either look like a leg (or arm) with some wing-like characteristics, or like a wing with some lingering arm-like characteristics.
Berkley has a nice website on the subject, if you care to read it. The short of it, though, is that we don’t need faith to see that bird wings evolved. We don’t know everything about how it occurred, but we do have the intermediate forms (despite the denials of creationists), and we continue to learn more as we discover more fossils.
CW: “Humans are composed of the same material as is found in the soil. Man was made from soil. All creatures were created by the same artist so the same ingredients and style are present in all created things (C, G, T, A) and resemble each other According to non-creationist microbiologists, DNA itself dies not support the theory of evolution because each creature is made if a unique set of DNA. If u change the code, it's a new creature not an altered old one. Still a theory as of yet. There is more faith than evidence present in the belief of evolution. Didn't care fir those authors really. I like da Bible. :0"Is it really any surprise that life on Earth is composed of elements that are common on the surface of the Earth? From an evolutionary standpoint, it's exactly what you should expect.
I’d love to know where she got this notion that “non-creationist microbiologists” are refuting evolution based on DNA. DNA is one of the great pieces of supporting evidence in favor of evolution, and unique variations in every living being are expected and in fact necessary for evolution to work. Sure it’s a “new creature”, but it’s not so different that it’s no longer the same species. It takes many generations for populations of creatures to diverge that much.
And of course Evolution is a theory. Learn what “theory” means to a scientist! It’s an explanation for a set of observations that is consistent with the evidence. A theory makes predictions that can be tested, and its predictions are consistent with reality.
A creationist friend of CW chimed into the thread to help defend it. We’ll call the friend HP.
HP: “There have never been any transitional fossils discovered. There is also overwhelming proof that an ‘inbetween’ species could not survive as it evolved into another species.”HP is another creationist who apparently only reads creationist publications for information about biology. There are plenty of transitional fossils, showing that “in-between” species survive just fine. There are millions of “in-between” species alive right now; thousands of years in the future, their descendants will be different species.
HP: “Charles Darwin was just a man with a theory. He was not all knowing and was like Job in the Bible and spoke of things that he knew not of. And God would ask these men the same things he asked Job..."where were you when I put the stars in the sky? Where were you when I..." (Paraphrase:)”Charles Darwin never claimed to know everything, and he was far from alone in his observations about life on Earth. His distinction was being the first to publish his findings.
CW: “That is my FAVORITE PASSAGE OF SCRIPTURE!!! "Brace yourself boy ... who do you think you ARE?" My paraphrase of course; God is much more kind than I am there. :) An in-between feather or eye or flipper just wouldn't be practical ... there isn't any way a half formed hand/wing would be superior to what was already there. And, again, it would become a new creature due to that whole pairing thing going on with the GCTA pairs ..."If only CW and HP could see the irony of their comments. They’re the ones making claims about subjects they don’t understand, because it’s clear that they don’t understand the theory they’re attacking.
Of course, if they actually learned the Theory of Evolution instead of listening to creationist sound-bites, they might realize that it’s accurate, and they wouldn’t want that! I expect that's why creationists routinely ignore attempts to actually teach them something about evolutionary biology.
Thursday, February 10, 2011
"Intelligent" Design
Apparently it requires making a nerve ten feet longer than it needs to be.
Richard Dawkins Demonstrates Laryngeal Nerve of the Giraffe
Uploaded by blindwatcher. - Discover more science and tech videos.
Richard Dawkins Demonstrates Laryngeal Nerve of the Giraffe
Uploaded by blindwatcher. - Discover more science and tech videos.
Wednesday, February 09, 2011
Simple Caribbean Chicken Curry
I made a batch of this over the weekend, and I got a request to post the recipe, so here we go.
- Open a can of pineapple chunks and drain the juice into a measuring cup.
- Combine the juice with water to make two cups and put it in a small pot.
- Add curry spice (adjust as you see fit).
- 1/4 tsp tumeric
- 1/4 tsp cardamom
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1 tsp ginger
- 1/2 tsp chili powder
- Add a cup of brown rice, bring to a boil, turn heat to low, cover, and leave to simmer 20 minutes.
- Put one or two chicken breasts in a 375-degree oven for the same time.
- Take the chicken from the oven and cut it into bite-sized pieces, add it to the rice pot.
- Add about a cup of black beans (roughly half a can) to the pot.
- Stir, cover, and let simmer another 10-15 minutes.
Saturday, February 05, 2011
Bill O' Reilly Reasoning
This was just too good to pass up.
Besides being just plain silly, O'Reilly's argument is also a classic example of "moving the goalposts".
Besides being just plain silly, O'Reilly's argument is also a classic example of "moving the goalposts".
Friday, February 04, 2011
Gabby's Burgers and Fries
I actually had my lunch with me yesterday when I went to work, but my colleague Andrea was in a special mood. She was craving Gabby's Burgers and Fries, and she asked if I wanted to join the group. I am so glad I did.
Gabby's is a little hole-in-the-wall burger joint on a corner across the street from the Nashville Sounds baseball field.
The absolute worst thing I can say about them is that they're a little free with the salt on the fries. The grass-fed beef they use, however, more than makes up for such a minor excess. Those are the most awesome burgers ever.
Gabby's is a little hole-in-the-wall burger joint on a corner across the street from the Nashville Sounds baseball field.
 |  |
 |  |
The absolute worst thing I can say about them is that they're a little free with the salt on the fries. The grass-fed beef they use, however, more than makes up for such a minor excess. Those are the most awesome burgers ever.
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Black Bean Minestrone
From the “easy to throw it together” series...
In a medium pot, combine…
In a medium pot, combine…
- One can of diced tomatoes
- One can of beef broth
- A cup or so of black beans
- A diced onion (sauteed)
- About a cup of whole wheat pasta (shells)
- Dried oregano (however much suits you)
- Dried basil (the same)
- About a tablespoon of prepared garlic (maybe less if it’s fresh-minced)
- Black pepper
- A splash of fish sauce
- A splash of balsamic vinegar
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
A New Firefly Criticism
Back-to-back posts! I'm on a roll!
In an article I recently found on the internet, the author complains that in the cult TV series Firefly, the relationship between Captain Malcolm Reynolds and his second-in-command, Zoe Washburn, is “yucky” because of an unfortunate connotation of some of the show's Civil War references.
At a glance, that’s not much of a stretch. Both the Union and the Alliance consist of older “states” with greater wealth and more firmly established industrial bases, while both the Confederacy and the Independents are relatively new “states” with more agricultural economies. Furthermore, the Independents' primary complaint seems to be onerous control by a central authority, which was at least the public reason for the defection of the Confederate states.
The author uses this reasoning to conclude that Zoe is a former slave of Mal’s, now free, but still following him out of some sense of misguided loyalty.
The problem with this reasoning is what we know about the actual institution of slavery in Firefly, which is still legal and practiced on the core worlds of the Alliance, but not so much on the marginally pacified border worlds that used to be Independents. In Firefly, the victorious “Union” is the defender of slavery, not the defeated “Confederacy”.
It’s impossible to cast Zoe in the role of freed slave still following “massa” (as the author puts it) when there’s really no indication that Zoe was ever anyone’s slave. It’s not even clear that there’s racial selection involved in the Alliance’s designation of slaves: we hear slaves discussed a few times, but we never actually saw any to see if they have any physical characteristics in common.
Update: In "Jaynestown", we see a colony where a population of "mudders" are described as indentured servants (a tiny step above outright slavery) working for the Alliance governor, and they were mostly (if not entirely, I wasn't paying that much attention) white.
This doesn’t mean race and racism aren’t factors in Firefly. Most of the wealthy aristocrats we see on the core worlds of the Alliance are lily white, with the major exceptions being government agents hired to do the Alliance’s dirty work. The lower class “Independents”, on the other hand, have more of a racial mix. A major flaw in the show, as I’ve noted before, is the conspicuous shortage of characters of Asian descent, particularly in a setting where Chinese phrases are frequently bandied about.
So, once again, we have a social criticism of Firefly that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.
In an article I recently found on the internet, the author complains that in the cult TV series Firefly, the relationship between Captain Malcolm Reynolds and his second-in-command, Zoe Washburn, is “yucky” because of an unfortunate connotation of some of the show's Civil War references.
The problem with using the Civil War as a subtext is that Joss Whedon’s ancestors weren’t slaves. So he seriously thinks that in Zoe, Mal’s second-in-command and only surviving member of his unit, he’s done a subversive little trick. She’s black! She’s a she! She can fight so good! She’s a soldier just like Mal, etc, etc.The problem with this whole line of reasoning is that it assumes that the Independent faction in Firefly’s civil war corresponds to the Confederacy in the American Civil War, while the Firefly Alliance corresponds to the Union.
Mr. Whedon must have fallen asleep during the part in class where they discussed how some slaves stayed with their masters even after emancipation.
At a glance, that’s not much of a stretch. Both the Union and the Alliance consist of older “states” with greater wealth and more firmly established industrial bases, while both the Confederacy and the Independents are relatively new “states” with more agricultural economies. Furthermore, the Independents' primary complaint seems to be onerous control by a central authority, which was at least the public reason for the defection of the Confederate states.
The author uses this reasoning to conclude that Zoe is a former slave of Mal’s, now free, but still following him out of some sense of misguided loyalty.
The problem with this reasoning is what we know about the actual institution of slavery in Firefly, which is still legal and practiced on the core worlds of the Alliance, but not so much on the marginally pacified border worlds that used to be Independents. In Firefly, the victorious “Union” is the defender of slavery, not the defeated “Confederacy”.
It’s impossible to cast Zoe in the role of freed slave still following “massa” (as the author puts it) when there’s really no indication that Zoe was ever anyone’s slave. It’s not even clear that there’s racial selection involved in the Alliance’s designation of slaves: we hear slaves discussed a few times, but we never actually saw any to see if they have any physical characteristics in common.
Update: In "Jaynestown", we see a colony where a population of "mudders" are described as indentured servants (a tiny step above outright slavery) working for the Alliance governor, and they were mostly (if not entirely, I wasn't paying that much attention) white.
This doesn’t mean race and racism aren’t factors in Firefly. Most of the wealthy aristocrats we see on the core worlds of the Alliance are lily white, with the major exceptions being government agents hired to do the Alliance’s dirty work. The lower class “Independents”, on the other hand, have more of a racial mix. A major flaw in the show, as I’ve noted before, is the conspicuous shortage of characters of Asian descent, particularly in a setting where Chinese phrases are frequently bandied about.
So, once again, we have a social criticism of Firefly that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.
Platinum Fuel Saver and its Spokesperson
Real content for a change... imagine that.
As I may have mentioned before, I spend some time listening to talk radio. In particular, I listen to the Michael Savage show when driving home in the evening because it’s more effective at keeping me alert than classical music, and I don’t particularly like the other music stations around here.
If you’re not familiar with Michael Savage, he’s a conservative shock-jock who broadcasts from San Francisco, CA. I like to think I can judge the integrity of a talk show host by the kind of products he advertises, particularly if he’s the spokesperson in the ads.
Michael has been advertising something called a Platinum Fuel Saver recently. The makers claim that a car with this device installed will use 22% less fuel. According to them, it increases the amount of fuel actually burned in the engine from 68% to 90%. Michael basically repeats these claims in the ads that he has recorded for them.
Alas, Consumer Reports tested this device, and they found that it has no effect at all on a car’s fuel efficiency: you basically spend $250 for nothing (more if you do some of the unscheduled maintenance on your car that the device maker recommends).
If a host repeats claims about a product on his show that don’t stand up to independent testing, should we trust him on any other claims that he makes?
As I may have mentioned before, I spend some time listening to talk radio. In particular, I listen to the Michael Savage show when driving home in the evening because it’s more effective at keeping me alert than classical music, and I don’t particularly like the other music stations around here.
If you’re not familiar with Michael Savage, he’s a conservative shock-jock who broadcasts from San Francisco, CA. I like to think I can judge the integrity of a talk show host by the kind of products he advertises, particularly if he’s the spokesperson in the ads.
Michael has been advertising something called a Platinum Fuel Saver recently. The makers claim that a car with this device installed will use 22% less fuel. According to them, it increases the amount of fuel actually burned in the engine from 68% to 90%. Michael basically repeats these claims in the ads that he has recorded for them.
Alas, Consumer Reports tested this device, and they found that it has no effect at all on a car’s fuel efficiency: you basically spend $250 for nothing (more if you do some of the unscheduled maintenance on your car that the device maker recommends).
If a host repeats claims about a product on his show that don’t stand up to independent testing, should we trust him on any other claims that he makes?
Monday, December 13, 2010
March of Cambreadth (Babylon 5)
It's been way too long since I posted anything, but another gratuitous video can help fill the void.
Friday, November 12, 2010
Friday, November 05, 2010
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Friday, October 29, 2010
Haunted Nashville
I went on a date to Haunted Nashville last night. There are some spoilers in here as you move along, so if you don’t want to know anything more than “it’s a fun house that won’t do anything really annoying”, you can stop reading now.
Nena was actually kind of worried that some of the activities would trigger her phobias, but at no point in Haunted Nashville does anyone deliberately touch, grab, or chase you. In fact, many of the monsters are quite polite, as they indicate which direction you should go when you’re having trouble finding the next doorway in the dark.
Turbidite Manor was probably the most fun of the three tours. It has the best special effects, including both animatronics and holograms. They also put characters in this one with real lines. Nena had her finest moment here, as one of the “apparitions” follows you out of one of the scenes, saying spooky things. Unfortunately for her, she moved a little too soon, and she didn’t realize that Nena and I were behind her as she followed the rest of the group down the hall. As a result, when she broke character and turned to go back to her hideout, Nena was able to startle her.
Epidemic is less interesting, in that it doesn’t really have any impressive special effects. The theme here is people jumping out of dark corners and making loud noises right next to you. The character who introduced us at the entrance to this one played his part marvelously, though.
House of Distortion is somewhere between. There are a lot of long, dark hallways where people jump out at you, but there are also some pretty impressive animatronics, and the “electrified windows” are a pretty neat effect, too.
I don’t think I’ll want to do this every year, as I suspect it will tend to be repetitive, but I’ll probably look for some other “haunted” attractions around Nashville for the future.
Nena was actually kind of worried that some of the activities would trigger her phobias, but at no point in Haunted Nashville does anyone deliberately touch, grab, or chase you. In fact, many of the monsters are quite polite, as they indicate which direction you should go when you’re having trouble finding the next doorway in the dark.
Turbidite Manor was probably the most fun of the three tours. It has the best special effects, including both animatronics and holograms. They also put characters in this one with real lines. Nena had her finest moment here, as one of the “apparitions” follows you out of one of the scenes, saying spooky things. Unfortunately for her, she moved a little too soon, and she didn’t realize that Nena and I were behind her as she followed the rest of the group down the hall. As a result, when she broke character and turned to go back to her hideout, Nena was able to startle her.
Epidemic is less interesting, in that it doesn’t really have any impressive special effects. The theme here is people jumping out of dark corners and making loud noises right next to you. The character who introduced us at the entrance to this one played his part marvelously, though.
House of Distortion is somewhere between. There are a lot of long, dark hallways where people jump out at you, but there are also some pretty impressive animatronics, and the “electrified windows” are a pretty neat effect, too.
I don’t think I’ll want to do this every year, as I suspect it will tend to be repetitive, but I’ll probably look for some other “haunted” attractions around Nashville for the future.
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Manliest Movie Ever
Or so someone thinks of Fist of the North Star (the original anime version).
Lots of gratuitous bleeding.
Lots of gratuitous bleeding.
Monday, October 25, 2010
Rhinehart's Oyster Bar
Visiting someone in the hospital isn't the best reason to go on a trip, but Nena and I did get to try a new restaurant in Augusta, GA while visiting Decca. Rhinehart's came up on Urban Spoon, and it's completely awesome.
It has a gravel parking lot, and there's graffiti all over the walls inside. It reminds me of the Crazy Cajun in Gray, TN (which, as far as I know, hasn't re-opened since the kitchen fire). The oysters and jambalaya are excellent (although the jambalaya will light you up a bit), and the Hurricanes are killer. Important safety tip: stop at one Hurricane! I had a second and, enjoyable though it was, I was feeling it the next day.
It has a gravel parking lot, and there's graffiti all over the walls inside. It reminds me of the Crazy Cajun in Gray, TN (which, as far as I know, hasn't re-opened since the kitchen fire). The oysters and jambalaya are excellent (although the jambalaya will light you up a bit), and the Hurricanes are killer. Important safety tip: stop at one Hurricane! I had a second and, enjoyable though it was, I was feeling it the next day.
 | |  |
 |  |  |
 |  |  |
 |  |  |
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Darkseid
Superman gets into a toussle with Darkseid in one of the animated movies. Villains don't come much more badass.
Friday, October 22, 2010
Scream of Ktchooloo
If you're unfamiliar with Call of Cthulu (the game, the story, and the horror fiction genre), you won't fully grok this video, but I think it's still funny enough.
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Eclipse Trailer
It deserves no better.
Come to think of it, it deserves worse.
Come to think of it, it deserves worse.
Vampires do not sparkle.
Monday, October 18, 2010
Science in the Media: Ridiculous Hype
Physorg.com is reporting the discovery of "transparent aluminum". Here's the tag line from the article:
"Oxford scientists have created a transparent form of aluminium by bombarding the metal with the world’s most powerful soft X-ray laser. 'Transparent aluminium' previously only existed in science fiction, featuring in the movie Star Trek IV, but the real material is an exotic new state of matter with implications for planetary science and nuclear fusion."Of course, if you read the article, you'll quickly realize that this opening statement is composed primarily of cattle droppings. Let's look at the details:
- Changing the state of the aluminum requires bombarding it with an x-ray laser that draws enough electricity to power a city.
- It isn't really transparent. Only extreme ultra-violet light gets through, not visible light.
- The aluminum only remains in the altered state for about 40 femtoseconds (a femtosecond is one millionth of one billionth of a second, if you're not a technogeek). To paraphrase Doctor Manhattan, it's an event that occurs so quickly that it can barely be said to have occurred at all.
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Friday, October 15, 2010
Retro Avengers!
In other news, some of my friends won Best in Show at the Dragon*Con masquerade for their "Steampunk X-Men".
Thursday, October 14, 2010
A Trip to the Cemetery
I'm not sure whether the silly label applies to this or not.
Geeky, obviously, but silly?
Geeky, obviously, but silly?
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Monday, October 11, 2010
Tasty, Tasty Brains!
I think sequels seldom live up to the original, but this particular scene is pretty darn creepy. Not for the faint of heart.
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Saturday, October 09, 2010
Friday, October 08, 2010
Thursday, October 07, 2010
Predator Fridge Logic
I wonder what it would be like if horror movie characters thought of these things.
Wednesday, October 06, 2010
"Dexter" Fridge Logic
So I've been roped into watching Dexter recently (not that I'm suffering or anything), and I noticed something that triggered my geek reflex. This kind of thing might involve spoilers, so anyone who hasn't watched Dexter yet and wants to might do well to skip this post and watch some more Halloween videos.
I'm still on season one (yeah, yeah... lots of catching up to do), and I think it was episode 8 that I was watching (maybe 9) tonight, when we had one of the flashbacks.
As a child, Dexter was injured while playing. He needed a blood transfusion, but he has the rarest of blood types: AB-. The hospital was stymied by the lack of a suitable donor, and only Dexter's foster father was able to identify a blood relative who would have the right blood type.
Two problems:
Edit: I suppose Dexter's biological father could be AB-, since he could donate either the A or the B if his wife donated the other one. My bad. Point #1 still stands.
Further Edit: A little research indicates that less than 10% of the population of Florida has Rh-negative blood, so finding a relative might still be fairly important.
I'm still on season one (yeah, yeah... lots of catching up to do), and I think it was episode 8 that I was watching (maybe 9) tonight, when we had one of the flashbacks.
As a child, Dexter was injured while playing. He needed a blood transfusion, but he has the rarest of blood types: AB-. The hospital was stymied by the lack of a suitable donor, and only Dexter's foster father was able to identify a blood relative who would have the right blood type.
Two problems:
- It's not that hard to find a donor for a recipient with type AB-. Any Rh-negative donor will do, because AB types can also receive A, B, or O types without any problems.
- The episode implies that the donor is Dexter's biological father, but if Dexter is type AB-, then his father must be either A- or B-, not AB-, so even if Dexter needs an exact match for some reason, his biological father couldn't be an exact match.
Edit: I suppose Dexter's biological father could be AB-, since he could donate either the A or the B if his wife donated the other one. My bad. Point #1 still stands.
Further Edit: A little research indicates that less than 10% of the population of Florida has Rh-negative blood, so finding a relative might still be fairly important.
Narwhals
This is its own special kind of scary.
Muah ha ha hah! Now it's running through your head, too!
Muah ha ha hah! Now it's running through your head, too!
Tuesday, October 05, 2010
Monday, October 04, 2010
Sunday, October 03, 2010
Saturday, October 02, 2010
Do you want to know about Rorschach?
Please remember that, while Rorschack is all badass and interesting, he's also insane.
Friday, October 01, 2010
Thursday, September 23, 2010
No... No Way!
Apparently some countries want to negotiate a "cyber peace treaty" that would effectively prevent people from posting internet content that criticizes their government.
I do hope our representatives have sense enough to know that our Constitution forbids signing or ratifying such a treaty.
Using the term "mass psychologic [sic] brainwashing," the agreement said that the dissemination of information "harmful to the spiritual, moral and cultural spheres of other states" should be considered a "security threat."Sounds like tyrants want to make it illegal for anyone in another country to point out their tyrannical policies. Technically such a treaty would only bind the government itself, but I suspect the countries pushing this "treaty" (including Russia, China, India, and Brazil) are just trying to get a foot in the door for suppressing all internet criticism.
I do hope our representatives have sense enough to know that our Constitution forbids signing or ratifying such a treaty.
Something that isn't Coq au Vin
I'm in the process of cooking a dish that isn't Coq au Vin, but should vaguely resemble it. I've got chicken breasts cooking in the oven, and I'll be slicing them up. In a small pot I have two cups of red wine (box-o-cabernet), a medium sauteed onion (very coarse chop), some honey, black pepper, and some prepared portbello mushrooms and roasted peppers (Delallo brand from the European Market & Deli, to be specific).
We shall see if this is good to eat...
(time passes)
Not bad at all. Definitely not Coq au Vin, but still pretty good in its own right.
We shall see if this is good to eat...
(time passes)
Not bad at all. Definitely not Coq au Vin, but still pretty good in its own right.
Monday, September 20, 2010
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Tuesday, September 07, 2010
A Comment on The New Communism
Sunsara Taylor was scheduled to give a talk to a Humanist association, and her photographer got arrested for taking pictures during a police arrest. That’s a particularly idiotic thing to happen, and I do think the charges should be dropped (although he has apparently been convicted at this point, appeal pending), but that’s not what I’m on about today. In a comment on the arrest, she had the following to say:
You can find the kind of altruism needed to operate a successful commune in a fairly small group of hand-picked people, but when you try to implement Communism on a national scale, it falls apart, and you end up with bread lines, rampant corruption, and people who are willing to risk death to escape from their own country. Communist nations have historically used walls, barbed-wire fences, minefields, and military force to keep their citizens from leaving.
In theory, you could have a government run by altruistic officials and supported by an altruistic population, but there simply aren’t enough altruistic people in reality for that to work. There are some, but not nearly enough. So, maybe you could give power to altruistic officials and have them enforce altruistic behavior from the rest of the population. That kind of power is dangerous, though, if it ever ends up in the hands of the corrupt. Again, see the Soviet Union for an example of what happens in reality when you concentrate power in the hands of a few idealists, no matter how pure their intentions were in the beginning.
Capitalism may not be the kindest and gentlest economic system in the world, but it has proven to be effective, and it allows people with talent to excel and become successful. Around the world, as societies have changed from managed communist economies to free markets, standards of living have improved. I’m not some crazy anarcho-capitalist who thinks the magical market will do everything right, but Capitalism is easily a better system than Communism.
“The themes of my talk, which drew on the theoretical framework developed by Bob Avakian in his book, AWAY WITH ALL GODS! Unchaining the Mind and Radically Changing the World, examined the basis for a morality that is rooted neither in the brutality and ignorance of Biblical times nor the narrow-minded individualism and relativism of modern U.S. capitalism. I posed the need for a morality that both reflects and serves the struggle to bring into being a world free of all forms of exploitation and oppression, a communist world, a world where everyone contributes whatever they can to society and gets back what they need to live a life worthy of human beings.”How very Star Trek of her. Communism seems to be undergoing some kind of resurgence in popularity among the sort of people who don’t remember what life was like for people in the Soviet Union and its satellite states during the late 20th Century. Somehow, these people missed, forgot, or never learned about the dismal failure of Communism.
You can find the kind of altruism needed to operate a successful commune in a fairly small group of hand-picked people, but when you try to implement Communism on a national scale, it falls apart, and you end up with bread lines, rampant corruption, and people who are willing to risk death to escape from their own country. Communist nations have historically used walls, barbed-wire fences, minefields, and military force to keep their citizens from leaving.
In theory, you could have a government run by altruistic officials and supported by an altruistic population, but there simply aren’t enough altruistic people in reality for that to work. There are some, but not nearly enough. So, maybe you could give power to altruistic officials and have them enforce altruistic behavior from the rest of the population. That kind of power is dangerous, though, if it ever ends up in the hands of the corrupt. Again, see the Soviet Union for an example of what happens in reality when you concentrate power in the hands of a few idealists, no matter how pure their intentions were in the beginning.
Capitalism may not be the kindest and gentlest economic system in the world, but it has proven to be effective, and it allows people with talent to excel and become successful. Around the world, as societies have changed from managed communist economies to free markets, standards of living have improved. I’m not some crazy anarcho-capitalist who thinks the magical market will do everything right, but Capitalism is easily a better system than Communism.
Sunday, September 05, 2010
Saturday, September 04, 2010
Yet another spam letter
Here's hoping that all my friends who are actually at Dragon*Con are having a great time.
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Terrible Movies
see more Lol Celebs
But, strangely enough, I watch a lot of bad movies, and I love them anyway.
Not sober, of course.
Monday, August 09, 2010
Food Porn: Assorted Dinners
First up, a little oyster boil that I shared with Nena last week. Witness the aftermath!
The salad is fresh tomatos, fresh basil, and fresh mozzarella with some olive oil, spices, and balsamic vinegar. The oysters are steamed in butter, sauteed onions, and Pinot Grigio.
(Yes, I use a screwdriver to open oysters. It's a multi-tasker.)
In another meal, we have a beef kielbasa from the European Market and Deli (in Mt. Juliet, TN) that is very tasty with some onions and peppers.
And finally, just for myself, Brussels sprouts sauteed with bacon, because bacon can make just about anything delicious.
The salad is fresh tomatos, fresh basil, and fresh mozzarella with some olive oil, spices, and balsamic vinegar. The oysters are steamed in butter, sauteed onions, and Pinot Grigio.
(Yes, I use a screwdriver to open oysters. It's a multi-tasker.)
 |  |  |
In another meal, we have a beef kielbasa from the European Market and Deli (in Mt. Juliet, TN) that is very tasty with some onions and peppers.
 |  |
And finally, just for myself, Brussels sprouts sauteed with bacon, because bacon can make just about anything delicious.
Friday, July 30, 2010
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
The Bleak World of Ray Comfort
Ray came up with a particularly depressing post a little while back.
In Ray’s world, no one ever does anything for anyone else without some sort of carrot or stick to motivate them. I’m wondering what I get when I let a car make a turn into my lane on the highway, knowing that I will probably never see that person again, won’t get a reward for letting them in, and won’t receive any sort of punishment if I drive by and leave them to wait. What benefit did I get when I picked up a twenty dollar bill blowing by at a gas station on a windy day, saw who had dropped it, and gave it back when I could have just driven away with no one the wiser?
There are some people who mistakenly think that it is wrong for anyone to respond to the gospel, simply for the reward of Heaven. Their belief is that we should do what's right just because it's right, not because of fear of punishment or promise of reward.Ray’s opening statement is false. The people he’s talking about say that it’s morally superior to do right just because it’s right instead of doing right just to receive a reward or to avoid a punishment. Of course, restating what his critics said into what he thinks they said is pretty typical for Ray.
However, such idealism is unrealistic. We are sinners with desperately wicked hearts, and we are incapable of such noble motives. [emphasis mine]In one of the places I’ve worked, the chief of security cited a statistic that one person out of three will steal if he thinks he can get away with it. Ray apparently thinks that statistic is too low, and it should be three out of three.
However, God has "wired" us to respond to rewards and punishments. From the moment we are born, we have the ability to respond positively to a smile and negatively to a frown. We respond positively to incentives. We work towards a wage, run to win the medal, and climb to reach the highest peak. Again, it's our nature to be motivated by these things.
In Ray’s world, no one ever does anything for anyone else without some sort of carrot or stick to motivate them. I’m wondering what I get when I let a car make a turn into my lane on the highway, knowing that I will probably never see that person again, won’t get a reward for letting them in, and won’t receive any sort of punishment if I drive by and leave them to wait. What benefit did I get when I picked up a twenty dollar bill blowing by at a gas station on a windy day, saw who had dropped it, and gave it back when I could have just driven away with no one the wiser?
That's why we have court systems that threaten punishment to lawbreakers. If we violate traffic rules we are punished by a ticket or even imprisonment.The selfish and antisocial will always be with us, but that doesn’t mean that everyone acts solely out of self-interest all the time.
It is therefore evident that it is legitimate for any sane person to respond negatively to the threat of Hell and positively to God's free gift of eternal life.As noted, Ray completely missed the point. While it is legitimate for a sane person to modify his or her behavior to avoid punishment or to gain a reward, it is also legitimate -- and more moral -- for someone to behave in a moral manner just because it’s the right thing to do, without expecting some kind of reward for doing it or punishment for not doing it.
Trenchmore
There was, of course, a ball at the Royal University of Meridies. I didn't take video, but Fiona's husband did.
Some of the dancers said I was understating things when I said that Trenchmore is a moderately aerobic dance. The music is a live band, by the way; it's nice to see that becoming a more regular feature.
Some of the dancers said I was understating things when I said that Trenchmore is a moderately aerobic dance. The music is a live band, by the way; it's nice to see that becoming a more regular feature.
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Food Porn: Tuscan Salad
I discovered this little jewel at a fund raiser lunch at the Second Harvest Food Bank.
My version has:
My version has:
- Fresh cucumber
- Fresh tomatos
- Multi-grain "baton" bread
- Vegetable oil (would have used olive oil, but discovered to late that I was out)
- Balsamic vinegar
- Salt, pepper, basil, and oregano
 |  |  |
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Improvised Minestrone
Sorry, no pictures, but it was easy to make. I’ll try to remember the camera next time.
- One quart of beef broth
- One can of diced tomatoes with Italian seasonings
- One can of seasoned black beans (drained)
- One cup of dry lentils
- About half a box of whole wheat pasta (shells)
- Half a teaspoon of fish sauce
Saturday, June 12, 2010
Swelter
Since my P90X partner is out of town this weekend, I went for a run this morning. That's rough in 90-degree heat, but I suppose when I end up running a marathon, there won't be any way to control the temperature.
Paks went on the run with me, and she thought it was hot, too. Of course, when we stopped to turn around, I rubbed her fur a bit and pulled out about a sheep's worth of wool. She's a shedding machine.
Going to try to rack some wine tonight.
Paks went on the run with me, and she thought it was hot, too. Of course, when we stopped to turn around, I rubbed her fur a bit and pulled out about a sheep's worth of wool. She's a shedding machine.
Going to try to rack some wine tonight.
Saturday, June 05, 2010
The Wrong Message
I'm one of the people who find Chick tracts to be amusing. The over-the-top fundamentalism is hard to take seriously, but there are apparently people who think these things are good proselytizing tools."Charlie's Ants" is a particularly amusing one to me. It's targeted at children, which might explain how it hilariously sends messages that I don't think the author ever intended.
The basic idea in this tract is to use a child's concern for the fate of an anthill as an analogy for God's love for humanity, but Chick does it so badly that he manages to describe God as some kind of incompetent, petulant child. The "I'm trying to SAVE you!" frame is the perfect example. Is Chick really trying to say natural disasters like the Nashville flood, hurricane Katrina, and the earthquake in Haiti were all the consequences of God throwing a temper tantrum because he couldn't communicate effectively?
And I'm sure that if I asked Jack Chick if there were anything God couldn't do, he would be quick to say that "with God, all things are possible." Yet he's quick to put limits on God when he needs to explain some of God's behavior that doesn't easily fit into his image of God's perfect love.
My religious views aren't mainstream, but I can't see how even a conservative Christian would be comfortable with the way Jack Chick talks about things that God "cannot" do and how the way God chose to act in the New Testament is the "only" way that he could have acted. It strikes me as terribly presumptuous for Jack to place limits on God so casually. He doesn't say that God "won't" allow sin into Heaven, he says that God "can't" allow sin into Heaven, and speaking as someone who makes a living choosing the right words to describe things, there's a huge difference between "can't" and "won't".Fundamentalists are usually quick to argue that there are no contradictions in the Bible. Maybe if they could see the contradictions in themselves, they'd be more able to understand the problems that many of us have with Biblical literalism.
Sunday, May 30, 2010
"Yeti" on Syfy
I watched Yeti: Curse of the Snow Demon on Syfy on Friday night. I did a blow-by-blow review on my Facebook profile, but I thought I'd share a copy here, as well. Click through to read it.
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Iron Man Fridge Logic
Didn't we learn in the first movie that Tony Stark's armored suits are powered by the miniature arc reactor that he wears in his chest to power the gizmo that keeps his heart beating? This would include the second suit he built, the Mark II armor, in particular.
So how was James Rhodes able to operate the Mark II suit in Iron Man 2? If Tony wasn't wearing it, it wouldn't have a power supply.
My geek-fu is still strong.
So how was James Rhodes able to operate the Mark II suit in Iron Man 2? If Tony wasn't wearing it, it wouldn't have a power supply.
My geek-fu is still strong.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Review: Iron Man 2
I got to see Iron Man 2 over the weekend, and I was quite pleased. They conveniently avoided the "hero has an extra disadvantage" cliche in this one, which is particularly refreshing, since they already used that one in the first installment. I was also pleased to see that the writers appreciated continuity, as a surprise weapon from the first film was reused in this one, albeit with different results. Also, when this movie's new surprise weapon was only used once, there was a good explanation. Clearly the writing staff had enough geeks to dodge many of my usual criticisms. The armored suits even sustain reasonable amounts of battle damage regardless of who wins.
Performance quality didn't drop in this film, either. Robert Downey Jr. continues to play a character who is an ass on many levels, but likeable all the same. The various people around him are still strained by his selfish eccentricity, and their behavior stays believable.
I wasn't thrilled by the choice of villain when I saw previews for IM2. I'm a bit of a comics buff, and I collected pretty heavily for a while. In the comics, Whiplash is at best a second-tier villain, probably just third. Still, they managed to make him into a threat without straining my sensibilities. I don't want to spoil things by saying how his first encounter with Iron Man went, but I wasn't actually displeased.
So this is definitely a "go see". The writers doing Marvel movies these days seem to be on the ball. They haven't really fumbled since Spiderman 3.
Note: There is an easter egg after the credits, but you have to be a Marvel Comics buff to appreciate it.
Performance quality didn't drop in this film, either. Robert Downey Jr. continues to play a character who is an ass on many levels, but likeable all the same. The various people around him are still strained by his selfish eccentricity, and their behavior stays believable.
I wasn't thrilled by the choice of villain when I saw previews for IM2. I'm a bit of a comics buff, and I collected pretty heavily for a while. In the comics, Whiplash is at best a second-tier villain, probably just third. Still, they managed to make him into a threat without straining my sensibilities. I don't want to spoil things by saying how his first encounter with Iron Man went, but I wasn't actually displeased.
So this is definitely a "go see". The writers doing Marvel movies these days seem to be on the ball. They haven't really fumbled since Spiderman 3.
Note: There is an easter egg after the credits, but you have to be a Marvel Comics buff to appreciate it.
Wednesday, May 05, 2010
While the town was flooded...
In case you didn't notice, it rained last weekend in Nashville. It rained a lot. It rained so much that the river crested some sixteen feet above flood stage. I live a bit outside Nashville, and my house fortunately did not flood (and I'm now pretty sure it never will).
There is, however, a low spot in the road to my house. When I got home from the Crown List event (Maximillian won... again) on Sunday, the river was lapping at the edge of the road. Overnight, it overflowed the road to a depth of five feet.
Needless to say, I stayed home Monday. I didn't miss much; the office where I work closed due to threat of the nearby levy failing and all the surrounding roads being flooded. It was still closed today (Wednesday), and I'm not all that sure about tomorrow. At least I was able to work remotely some today.
So, I did get a little bit of cleaning done, and I finally got the opportunity to see Dead Snow. I saw it in Norwegian with English subtitles via Netflix on-demand. That was a fun little zombie movie, although the zombies were a little non-traditional (you could apparently kill them with damage that would kill a living person, which is atypical for zombie flicks). It turned out to be a little unpredictable, which is good. It was also somewhat tongue-in-cheek, which can vary. Campy worked well for Zombieland, while serious worked well for Night of the Living Dead (for which I actually prefer the 1990 remake, but that's as much because of Patricia Tallman as anything). I give it about a three out of four if you have my bizarre taste in movies (I watch Syfy original movies, after all, even if it's mostly to laugh at their badness).
Hopefully the office will be open tomorrow. I'm totally losing track of my days. For a while, I thought today was Sunday.
There is, however, a low spot in the road to my house. When I got home from the Crown List event (Maximillian won... again) on Sunday, the river was lapping at the edge of the road. Overnight, it overflowed the road to a depth of five feet.
Needless to say, I stayed home Monday. I didn't miss much; the office where I work closed due to threat of the nearby levy failing and all the surrounding roads being flooded. It was still closed today (Wednesday), and I'm not all that sure about tomorrow. At least I was able to work remotely some today.
So, I did get a little bit of cleaning done, and I finally got the opportunity to see Dead Snow. I saw it in Norwegian with English subtitles via Netflix on-demand. That was a fun little zombie movie, although the zombies were a little non-traditional (you could apparently kill them with damage that would kill a living person, which is atypical for zombie flicks). It turned out to be a little unpredictable, which is good. It was also somewhat tongue-in-cheek, which can vary. Campy worked well for Zombieland, while serious worked well for Night of the Living Dead (for which I actually prefer the 1990 remake, but that's as much because of Patricia Tallman as anything). I give it about a three out of four if you have my bizarre taste in movies (I watch Syfy original movies, after all, even if it's mostly to laugh at their badness).
Hopefully the office will be open tomorrow. I'm totally losing track of my days. For a while, I thought today was Sunday.
Monday, April 19, 2010
Movie Review: Clash of the Titans
Ah, Hollywood, how they love to butcher history and mythology. If you haven’t been bothering to keep up, Hollywood decided to pillage their own vaults for ideas again and came up with a remake of Clash of the Titans, a movie produced in 1981 that tells the story of the ancient Greek hero Perseus… badly. Well, for a simple action-fantasy movie it wasn’t all that bad, but it certainly didn’t strain too hard to follow the mythological story accurately, and the modern remake doesn’t try any harder. In fact, the modern remake makes exactly the same mythological errors as the original, and then adds some more. The movie also has a rather muddled message, so it’s really not all that impressive for anything but its special effects, and even those aren’t exactly ground-breaking.
The spoilers are about to start flowing, so now would be the time turn away if that matters to you.
The original Clash of the Titans, if you don’t already know, involves the goddess Thetis taking offense when Queen Cassiopeia brags that her daughter, Princess Andromeda, is even more lovely than the goddess. As the Greek gods were wont to do, Thetis takes offense and informs the people of Argos that she’s sending the Kraken – the hit-beast of the gods – to destroy Argos, a fate they can avoid by chaining Andromeda out on the beach as a sacrifice to it.
The remake takes divine petulance a step further by having the gods behave so irresponsibly that all of humanity is rebelling against them and destroying their temples – which is a problem, since the gods derive much of their power from human worship. The exception is Hades – the god of the underworld – who has learned to thrive on human fear instead. Seeing the human rebellion as an opportunity to overthrow Zeus, he manipulates the situation for his own benefit. When the insolent people of Argos proclaim the beauty of Andromeda, he announces – in Zeus’s name – that she must be sacrificed to the Kraken or the city will be destroyed. In so doing, he expects the human lack of respect to turn into full-blown hatred (which will deprive Zeus of power) and outright terror (which will increase his own power).
With the plot thus set, the sequence of events of the two movies begins to converge. Perseus goes on a quest to behead the gorgon Medusa so he can use her petrifying gaze to defeat the Kraken. Motives and details vary (and I won’t go into them at length), but the gist is much the same. The main difference is in the muddled message of the remake.
The original didn’t really have a message; it was just a wacky adventure to slay a monster. The sequel tries to introduce a theme revolving around human independence and immortal accountability, which is potentially interesting if you’re following the religion-versus-secularism conflict in modern culture, but the movie can’t seem to make up its mind whether to follow through on that plot and have Perseus succeed purely on his mortal merits or go through a “character arc” in which Perseus learns to accept his godly heritage. In the end, he doesn’t really do either, which makes me wonder why the writers introduced this personal conflict in the first place.
As for the butchering of mythology, the actual myth of Perseus goes something like this:
The spoilers are about to start flowing, so now would be the time turn away if that matters to you.
The original Clash of the Titans, if you don’t already know, involves the goddess Thetis taking offense when Queen Cassiopeia brags that her daughter, Princess Andromeda, is even more lovely than the goddess. As the Greek gods were wont to do, Thetis takes offense and informs the people of Argos that she’s sending the Kraken – the hit-beast of the gods – to destroy Argos, a fate they can avoid by chaining Andromeda out on the beach as a sacrifice to it.
The remake takes divine petulance a step further by having the gods behave so irresponsibly that all of humanity is rebelling against them and destroying their temples – which is a problem, since the gods derive much of their power from human worship. The exception is Hades – the god of the underworld – who has learned to thrive on human fear instead. Seeing the human rebellion as an opportunity to overthrow Zeus, he manipulates the situation for his own benefit. When the insolent people of Argos proclaim the beauty of Andromeda, he announces – in Zeus’s name – that she must be sacrificed to the Kraken or the city will be destroyed. In so doing, he expects the human lack of respect to turn into full-blown hatred (which will deprive Zeus of power) and outright terror (which will increase his own power).
With the plot thus set, the sequence of events of the two movies begins to converge. Perseus goes on a quest to behead the gorgon Medusa so he can use her petrifying gaze to defeat the Kraken. Motives and details vary (and I won’t go into them at length), but the gist is much the same. The main difference is in the muddled message of the remake.
The original didn’t really have a message; it was just a wacky adventure to slay a monster. The sequel tries to introduce a theme revolving around human independence and immortal accountability, which is potentially interesting if you’re following the religion-versus-secularism conflict in modern culture, but the movie can’t seem to make up its mind whether to follow through on that plot and have Perseus succeed purely on his mortal merits or go through a “character arc” in which Perseus learns to accept his godly heritage. In the end, he doesn’t really do either, which makes me wonder why the writers introduced this personal conflict in the first place.
As for the butchering of mythology, the actual myth of Perseus goes something like this:
- Danae, the mother of Perseus, was the daughter of King Acrisius, not his wife. Acrisius had them sent out to sea to die in an effort to avoid a prophecy that his grandson would eventually kill him (that never works, by the way). Both Perseus and Danae survived the sea journey to end up in Seriphus.
- Seriphus had its own problems, as the king there – Polydectes – had his lecherous eye on Danae. Perseus was a master c*@#-blocker, though, so Polydectes tricked Perseus into promising to kill Medusa, which he figured would be a sure way to get the youth killed.
- Seeing his son in a trap, Zeus took steps to make sure Perseus had the means to accomplish the quest. He arranged for him to have a sword and shield (with a mirror-polished inside surface), a pair of winged sandals, a helmet that turned him invisible (provided by Hades, incidentally – see below), and a bag suitable for toting around a severed monster head.
- Guided by the advice of the Graeae (the oracles with only one eye among the three of them), Perseus found Medusa’s lair and ambushed her in her sleep (sorry, no epic battle, folks).
- On his way home he happened to see Andromeda chained to the rocks as a sacrifice to the Kraken. The offense that got her there, incidentally, was being reckoned more beautiful than the Nereids, vain sea nymphs who complained to Poseidon when the word got round. Perseus – after extracting a promise from Andromeda's father that he could marry her – intervened to save her. That’s right: the Kraken was just a target of opportunity, not the object of Perseus’s quest.
- Hades was somber, not evil, and he actually liked ruling the underworld. As I recall, he chose the underworld as his domain (he, Zeus, and Poseidon drew lots to see who would get first choice).
- Drops of Medusa’s blood spilled by Perseus during his post-beheading travels caused poisonous snakes to develop in various parts of the world. Not exactly giant scorpions, but far worse raping of mythology occurs in these movies.
- Pegasus belongs in the story of Bellerophon, not the story of Perseus.
- There is no story from Greek mythology that involves “jinn” in any way whatsoever.
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Gulf Wars XIX Open A&S Performing Arts
La Chanson de Roland
The Counting of the Twenty and One
I'm not at all sure why I thought it was "The Counting of the Thirteen and One" when I first captioned it. I need to fix that.
Thursday, April 08, 2010
Overdue Gulf Wars XIX Post
Sunday
After staying overnight in Jackson with Shimofuri on Saturday, we caravanned down to the site on Sunday to help set up camp. We arrived in the early afternoon, and I immediately joined in the raising of the kitchen/dining tent. Here I received my first injury of the war. The roof frame is made of fitted pipe sections, and I asked someone to push on the other end of one of the pipes as I was getting it fitted. The push came a bit sooner than I expected and my hand got pinched, so I went through the war with a bandage on the web of my right hand next to the thumb. Fortunately I was up to fencing by Wednesday.
Monday
Monday I found a very nice merchant who provided me with some tape to properly secure the bandage on my hand. That served me most of the day, and I obtained a small roll of tape from the chirurgeons to keep me going through the rest of the war. On top of that, Her Excellency Katherine got me some bactine, more bandages, and more tape. I was being positively doted on, but that suits me very well.
In the early afternoon, I went to the dance hall (Bede Hall) to help teach a dance class. This was simple 15th Century Italian dances: Amoroso, Petits Riens, and Anello. Since the planned teacher was unable to attend the war, Lady Sibyl was teaching, and I happily assisted. It's always nice to have some ringers when you're teaching a dance class.
Following the dance class, I ventured down to the Fort for the Verona Street Brawl. I wasn't up to fighting yet – just trying to hold a rapier hurt my hand – so I volunteered as a marshal. I don't think that brawls were quite as amusing as they were two years ago, when I last attended the war. The attempts to frame the other family were rather hamfisted, and the Governors were shamefully oblivious to the bloodbaths in the streets.
That evening I hosted the Beginners’ Ball. I planned it with lots of common, easy dances. Basically, if you didn't already know the dance, any ringer on the floor could drag you through it with minimal coaching. The list worked out quite well, if I do say so myself, as we worked our way through the dances at a steady pace and had plenty of time for requests before we had to close down the ball.
Tuesday
Early Tuesday afternoon I taught my dance class. This year I taught two variations of the Contrapasso. The standard variation is for a couples, and the Contrapasso Nuovo variation is for a set of three couples. Contrapasso itself is not really very difficult and the students learned it with plenty of time to spare. Contrapasso Nuovo is similar, but there are definitely some tricky maneuvers, and it has l5ess repetition, making it more difficult to remember. Fortunately Lady Ginevra assisted by providing live music; you can ask a musician to play just a particular section of the music, a request that recording just can’t seem to accommodate.
Wednesday
On Wednesday morning,I was up to fighting, and the Green Dragon Inn hosted a Tavern Brawl. Nothing rocks quite like a tavern brawl in an authentic tavern. Don Mateo organized several different scenarios, some involving just staying alive, others requiring an effort to loot the place. Some of the survival scenarios were real meat grinders.
In the afternoon, I competed in the Everyman Tourney. I didn't make it past my first round robin group, but it was a near thing. Three of us tied for second place, and we had to fight another mini round robin to see which two would progress. I had some really good fights in this tourney.
Thursday
Thursday morning was the Ladies of the Rose Rapier Tournament, and I again fought on behalf of Duchess Katrina. I don’t exactly have a stunning track record at the Rose tourney, but it’s always a fun time. The tourney had 110 entrants this year, which is a new record. I drew Don Iago for my first bout, and I actually dispatched him with surprising speed. I’m thinking of adding a white ribbon to my outfit every time I win a tournament match with a Don, now.
My second draw was Warder Sibyl Sevenoke, and I couldn’t have asked for a better second draw. Make no mistake: Sibyl is better than me at this game, but that makes the fight all the more fun. I am especially pleased by the fact that when she disabled my left hand with a cut to my thumb, she did not put down her own dagger; I like for my opponent to continue to treat me as a threat even after scoring a significant blow. She got my other arm a bit later, putting me out of the fight in a way that Joseph Swetnam – the historical fencing master I study – would definitely have appreciated (i.e., no one “died”).
I drew Lord Silvani for my final fight, and he’s definitely been keeping in better practice than I, too. I managed to stretch it out for a while, though, before being legged and then finally eliminated.
The schedulers moved the Rapier Field Battle up from Saturday to Thursday afternoon this year, and I turned out for it. We were fighting with Trimaris this year, and the first battle of the two-out-of-three contest was something of a cluster-fail. Meridies was positioned at the left end of the Trimarin line, facing the Hellhounds from Northshield. When the battle started, our front line ran out to make contact with the enemy while the rear ranks (consisting of some people who don’t move very fast due to knee troubles and such) closed at a slower pace. It’s not a good idea to take on the Hellhounds piecemeal; each little unit gets cut to shreds as it arrives. It would have been better to all march up at an even pace and make contact at full strength. Yes, I died pretty quick in that battle.
I’m not sure what the plan was in the second battle. After changing sides of the field, Meridies was on the right end of the Trimarin line, next to the Atlantians. When the battle started, the Atlantians quickly moved out and crossed in front of us to engage the Hellhounds while we looked for a place to reinforce. Our commander pointed out a thin spot for us to fill and I stepped into place to engage some Trimarins and Midrealmers. I soon noticed that our line was still pretty thin to the right of me; then it was also thin to the left of me; then I realized I was on my own against about six opponents. Well, I managed to keep them busy for a while and I got three of them, so I think I did my part pretty well in the second battle, but it was still an overall loss.
With the war point settled, round three was a “friendship battle” which my side won (due in no small part to the Hellhounds defecting to our side, I suspect).
Friday
Friday morning I took my camcorder down to Bede Hall, where the open A&S competition was taking place. I recorded the performing arts entries, and one of them is already posted to YouTube. Hopefully I'll get the others up shortly.
Later in the day there was a Ribbon Tourney, and I assisted as a marshal, as I was saving my energy for the Ravine Battle.
Like the Field Battle, the Ravine Battle was pretty lop-sided. I also couldn't seem to get any cooperation from my allies. On the way to the line, I'd ask the fighters on either side of me if they would take shots if I blocked blades, but when I knocked blades down, the shots didn't materialize. I eventually gave up on that and decided to just cause a bit of havoc, and I actually did get into the enemy backfield once, killing several of their fighters in the process. Moments like that make the whole tiresome business worth while.
Saturday
Rain was threatening Saturday, and I really didn't want to pack a wet tent, so I broke camp early in the day, did some final shopping, and for the first time at Gulf Wars, I actually left site early.
After staying overnight in Jackson with Shimofuri on Saturday, we caravanned down to the site on Sunday to help set up camp. We arrived in the early afternoon, and I immediately joined in the raising of the kitchen/dining tent. Here I received my first injury of the war. The roof frame is made of fitted pipe sections, and I asked someone to push on the other end of one of the pipes as I was getting it fitted. The push came a bit sooner than I expected and my hand got pinched, so I went through the war with a bandage on the web of my right hand next to the thumb. Fortunately I was up to fencing by Wednesday.
Monday
Monday I found a very nice merchant who provided me with some tape to properly secure the bandage on my hand. That served me most of the day, and I obtained a small roll of tape from the chirurgeons to keep me going through the rest of the war. On top of that, Her Excellency Katherine got me some bactine, more bandages, and more tape. I was being positively doted on, but that suits me very well.
In the early afternoon, I went to the dance hall (Bede Hall) to help teach a dance class. This was simple 15th Century Italian dances: Amoroso, Petits Riens, and Anello. Since the planned teacher was unable to attend the war, Lady Sibyl was teaching, and I happily assisted. It's always nice to have some ringers when you're teaching a dance class.
Following the dance class, I ventured down to the Fort for the Verona Street Brawl. I wasn't up to fighting yet – just trying to hold a rapier hurt my hand – so I volunteered as a marshal. I don't think that brawls were quite as amusing as they were two years ago, when I last attended the war. The attempts to frame the other family were rather hamfisted, and the Governors were shamefully oblivious to the bloodbaths in the streets.
That evening I hosted the Beginners’ Ball. I planned it with lots of common, easy dances. Basically, if you didn't already know the dance, any ringer on the floor could drag you through it with minimal coaching. The list worked out quite well, if I do say so myself, as we worked our way through the dances at a steady pace and had plenty of time for requests before we had to close down the ball.
Tuesday
Early Tuesday afternoon I taught my dance class. This year I taught two variations of the Contrapasso. The standard variation is for a couples, and the Contrapasso Nuovo variation is for a set of three couples. Contrapasso itself is not really very difficult and the students learned it with plenty of time to spare. Contrapasso Nuovo is similar, but there are definitely some tricky maneuvers, and it has l5ess repetition, making it more difficult to remember. Fortunately Lady Ginevra assisted by providing live music; you can ask a musician to play just a particular section of the music, a request that recording just can’t seem to accommodate.
Wednesday
On Wednesday morning,I was up to fighting, and the Green Dragon Inn hosted a Tavern Brawl. Nothing rocks quite like a tavern brawl in an authentic tavern. Don Mateo organized several different scenarios, some involving just staying alive, others requiring an effort to loot the place. Some of the survival scenarios were real meat grinders.
In the afternoon, I competed in the Everyman Tourney. I didn't make it past my first round robin group, but it was a near thing. Three of us tied for second place, and we had to fight another mini round robin to see which two would progress. I had some really good fights in this tourney.
Thursday
Thursday morning was the Ladies of the Rose Rapier Tournament, and I again fought on behalf of Duchess Katrina. I don’t exactly have a stunning track record at the Rose tourney, but it’s always a fun time. The tourney had 110 entrants this year, which is a new record. I drew Don Iago for my first bout, and I actually dispatched him with surprising speed. I’m thinking of adding a white ribbon to my outfit every time I win a tournament match with a Don, now.
My second draw was Warder Sibyl Sevenoke, and I couldn’t have asked for a better second draw. Make no mistake: Sibyl is better than me at this game, but that makes the fight all the more fun. I am especially pleased by the fact that when she disabled my left hand with a cut to my thumb, she did not put down her own dagger; I like for my opponent to continue to treat me as a threat even after scoring a significant blow. She got my other arm a bit later, putting me out of the fight in a way that Joseph Swetnam – the historical fencing master I study – would definitely have appreciated (i.e., no one “died”).
I drew Lord Silvani for my final fight, and he’s definitely been keeping in better practice than I, too. I managed to stretch it out for a while, though, before being legged and then finally eliminated.
The schedulers moved the Rapier Field Battle up from Saturday to Thursday afternoon this year, and I turned out for it. We were fighting with Trimaris this year, and the first battle of the two-out-of-three contest was something of a cluster-fail. Meridies was positioned at the left end of the Trimarin line, facing the Hellhounds from Northshield. When the battle started, our front line ran out to make contact with the enemy while the rear ranks (consisting of some people who don’t move very fast due to knee troubles and such) closed at a slower pace. It’s not a good idea to take on the Hellhounds piecemeal; each little unit gets cut to shreds as it arrives. It would have been better to all march up at an even pace and make contact at full strength. Yes, I died pretty quick in that battle.
I’m not sure what the plan was in the second battle. After changing sides of the field, Meridies was on the right end of the Trimarin line, next to the Atlantians. When the battle started, the Atlantians quickly moved out and crossed in front of us to engage the Hellhounds while we looked for a place to reinforce. Our commander pointed out a thin spot for us to fill and I stepped into place to engage some Trimarins and Midrealmers. I soon noticed that our line was still pretty thin to the right of me; then it was also thin to the left of me; then I realized I was on my own against about six opponents. Well, I managed to keep them busy for a while and I got three of them, so I think I did my part pretty well in the second battle, but it was still an overall loss.
With the war point settled, round three was a “friendship battle” which my side won (due in no small part to the Hellhounds defecting to our side, I suspect).
Friday
Friday morning I took my camcorder down to Bede Hall, where the open A&S competition was taking place. I recorded the performing arts entries, and one of them is already posted to YouTube. Hopefully I'll get the others up shortly.
Later in the day there was a Ribbon Tourney, and I assisted as a marshal, as I was saving my energy for the Ravine Battle.
Like the Field Battle, the Ravine Battle was pretty lop-sided. I also couldn't seem to get any cooperation from my allies. On the way to the line, I'd ask the fighters on either side of me if they would take shots if I blocked blades, but when I knocked blades down, the shots didn't materialize. I eventually gave up on that and decided to just cause a bit of havoc, and I actually did get into the enemy backfield once, killing several of their fighters in the process. Moments like that make the whole tiresome business worth while.
Saturday
Rain was threatening Saturday, and I really didn't want to pack a wet tent, so I broke camp early in the day, did some final shopping, and for the first time at Gulf Wars, I actually left site early.
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Gulf Wars XIX
Yes, I did return from Gulf Wars... I am being slack about posting. Please be patient.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
