Category Archives: Uncategorized

Pretty much what it says on the tin: posts that haven’t been otherwise categorized.

Preliminary Axesperimental Findings

So I had a chance to work on my mind game at heavy practice last night, and while my previous post on the matter may have edged toward melodramatic, I think I had some success. I have also noticed some differences between how it works in heavy fighting versus fencing that I’d like to discuss.

But first I want to try to clarify what I mean by the “they are meat” mindset. For me, it is a way of reminding myself that during a fight my goal should be to win, not to merely pass the time or make sure the other person feels good about themselves. There is a place for that, don’t get me wrong, but for a long time that has largely been my default setting, and I think it’s working to my detriment right now. The “meat” thing may seem extreme; I will concede that it may be, but sometimes it takes an extreme shift of perspective to move you out of a rut. It is a tool in the bag, one that will hopefully help boost me to the next level.

With that out of the way, let’s talk about how it went last night.

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Just Writing Something

So over the past few days I’m managed to build up a buffer of posts. For instance: yesterdays post was written the day after fencing practice, and this one was written on Sunday. Basically, if a post goes up at noon, you can safely assume it’s been written beforehand. The ones that have gone up around 3 or 4 I wrote that day, after I got home from work.

Having a buffer has been nice; for instance, it let me take Saturday off of writing and go see Elysium with my dad and brother (short review: a timely and good [if not-so-subtle] allegory about class tension). Rather than writing, I spent my down time decompressing and crushing playing video games with my brother. However, having a buffer is not without its downsides.

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Clever girl…

So at fencing practice last week, I tried out some of what I talked about in my previous post on fighting. Today, I’d like to talk about how the experiment (Axesperiment?) went. I noticed at fighter practice, after my knight talked to me, that suppressing emotions wasn’t enough: I ended up thinking “don’t feel for this person” more than I thought about fighting, with predictable results: I didn’t fight nearly as well as I know I can. So at fencing practice the next night, I tried a slightly different approach. Rather than feeling and working on keeping those emotions under control, I worked on not feeling at all. The results were interesting.

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Navel Gazing

It’s amazing how quickly the things I do can shift from “for myself” to “for others.” Take this blog, for instance. My first few entries were written before I announced my projec tto the public. I would say those entries were the closest I’ve been to writing purely for myself. I didn’t rightly care what I wrote, just that I was writing. The act itself was more important than the results. However, I’ve noticed a chance since other people started reading and commenting. I find myself thinking more about what I say, and if people are going to want to read it. I feel like I should write something interesting, which will hopefully spark discussion and commentary. I’ve started checking the stats daily, to see what kind of traffic I’m getting. In short, I’ve started writing for the readers and not the writer.

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Last Minute Panic is an Amazing Motivator

I have some interesting quirks when it comes to writing. For one thing, I don’t like re-reading my own work. I mean, really, really don’t like it. But luckily, I’ve discovered I write a pretty mean first draft. But in an academic world of “Outline → Draft → Edit → Draft → Final,” this left me in an interesting position. I found I could wait until the last minute, crank out an essay the night (or weekend) before it was due, and end up getting good marks on whatever I turned in.

Definitely a case of “I’m learning a lesson, but I’m not sure it’s the one you want me to.”

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Hockey can be okay. Just ask The Arrogant Worms

This may come as a shock to many of you</sarcasm>, but I don’t like sports.

I have had to refine my opinion over the years, as I have come to be involved in things that could appear to be sport-like. So a more accurate statement would be “I don’t like team sports.”

Now I do have some experience with team sports: I tried baseball in sixth grade, and was on a soccer team somewhere around first or second grade. The fact that I spent most of my time as a goalie, keeping a book by the goalposts should not be held against me (I am a compulsive reader). I guess part of what I didn’t like was the pressure to perform, as I wasn’t very good (mostly from lack of drive and interest), and I was nice enough at heart that I didn’t want to let the rest of the team down.

But I was talking with my girlfriend the other day about how neither of us was particularly fond of sports (after all, she tells people she’s a Cubs fan to get them to change the subject), and got to thinking about why I don’t like sports. And this may be best illustrated by why I’m not a fan of that “All-American pastime” that is football.

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I Write, You Read (if you want, no pressure)

It’s weird, knowing that people read your blog.  I mean, sure, it’s one thing to write a post and get comments, but having someone come up to you face to face and mention it is somehow different.  Kinda surreal.  One of my friends compared reading my blog to being able to root through my underwear drawer.  Sorry to burst your bubble, but my underwear had a tendency to live on the floor (don’t worry, clean clothes and dirty ones are separate piles).  How’s that for personal over-sharing?

But knowing that people read my blog has other consequences as well.  For one, I’m more conscious about whether I have anything worth saying, or if what I write is going to be worth reading.  It’s likely just Self Doubt starting to whisper again, but I seem to be a bit susceptible right now, seeing as I’m running low on sleep.

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Click Here to Learn More!

I’ve started using “Continue Reading” links in my posts a few paragraphs in.  Let me know if these are too annoying.  I think it cleans up the main feed a bit, and prevents the problem of scrolling down to the end of a post and not finding a place to comment.

Where to find me

Hey there!  Now that I have revealed the presence of this blog to the outside world, I guess it’s possible that I might get actual readers (thanks to those of you who have started leaving comments).  I realize that not everyone is going to want to check yet another website for new posts every day (I’ve been known to do so, but mostly to waste time).  As such, I’ve finally joined the 21st Century Web 2.0 Interblagosphere, and there are now several ways you can stay abreast of my inane ramblings:

  • This blog (duh)
  • RSS (I use Feedly to sync my feeds since the death of Google Reader)
  • Facebook (the social network I use the most, and I don’t use it much)
  • Tumblr (still has some packing peanuts attached)
  • Twitter (careful, the paint is still wet)

I’ve considered setting up a Google+ profile, but have so far resisted; if there’s interest I will reconsider.  This post should go to all the services above.  If it doesn’t, I’ll figure something out (hopefully without too many goat sacrifices).