Yeah... I know it's been a little bit. Busy is only a kind of excuse, but it is an honest part. The other is that I operate by phone almost exclusively so having access to a computer to type can be difficult. But the absence has been glaring at me; worry not about that my non-existent readership.
That is why I am trying to take advantage of it now.
Anyway, the 30 for 30 fell by the wayside pretty quickly in the lead up to 12th night. I at least did get some sword work in that weekend because I got authorized to do rapier combat in the SCA. So now I can participate without qualms. Now to get marshelled so I can hold practices out here.
Which we can do that now too because we have a few rapiers to practice with. But I still plan to go to Eugene on Sundays to do their practice since they have more people than us. So there are details to work out.
Speaking of which, I am doing this post, post-workout. (;P) Nothing to complex, I am severely out of shape so anything at this point will help my body. But I squeezed out 3x10 of push ups, squats, dumbbell rows, and leg raises. I broke a sweat and am fatigued so I am happy. I should be sufficiently sore the next few days, do it again Thursday to keep up an approximate 2x a week strength training, which -- if I can keep the intensity up like tonight -- will be sufficient to get stronger, which is the goal. My 6'1" frame holds my flabby 215lb body well enough that i still look skinny in an unhealthy way, put on a few pounds of muscle and I'll be a happy camper. perhaps if I can get some grappling mixed in with my fencing and regain the strength to use the muscle memory I have from my judo days and I will be in heaven. :)
Work has been going well that I have learned to flush set stone with relative ease that my boos has no problem letting me do orders with only a day and a half practice which has me super stoked. Learning new skills from time to time has me thinking that I either have a real knack for this or that it's just easier than I thought. Either way, It is encouraging me to take more risks in trying new things, which I plan to do for a few brooches I will be making for Egils this year.
Another thing keeping me busy, designing some brooches for Egils. A couple penannular brooches and a couple wire fibula as prizes for tourneys there this year. I wanna try to make them special. I am only gonna get paid for materials but I will have a maker mark and info for the word to be spread. The time is come to start making money for my skill, though it be still budding.
Anyway, that's all for now, I wanna take a shower, and chill for the rest of the night.
Peace out, Girl Scouts
Monday, January 18, 2016
Saturday, January 2, 2016
30 for 30
So today Started a 30 day challenge.
For almost a decade i have known and been interested in HEMA. But a majority of these years have been spent in crippling depression and just lack of opportunity to pursue it. I actually joined the SCA because there was no HEMA group for 120mi around me. They have a martial practice fairly new and similar to hema known as Cut & Thrust.
Well... I found out the local group had no steel fighters whatsoever. A year and a half later I remain the only authorized fighter in central Oregon. Luckily though, circumstances have changed...
For one, I've managed to overcome the depression; it was mostly induced by my undiagnosed diabetes which i have subsequently turned around. Second, I have the ability to travel that 120mi distance on the weekend to participate with my fellow SCAdians. But also, Bend now has its first HEMA club, it's italian, but still... we got HEMA.
I've also taken it upon me to just start practicing on my own which i personally find difficult because I lack discipline to be curt about it. Hence this 30 for 30
Within the HEMAA FB group someone created a group to help create accountability. For 30 min a day for 30 Days I've committed to practicing to 1) not only get in the habit, but 2) Finally start to really take this shit seriously.
Today wasn't much of a practice but I did get 30min in. First half I drilled on some cuts and footwork, and then read my copy of Meyer's Kunst des Fechtens. I have learned that I will definitely need to dedicate more than 30min a day, physically i need to work on cardio so I can do the drills and increase my skill. so I think my 30min will be dedicated to that alone, and perhaps keep swordwork and read separate. Exercise has always been my biggest down fall, if i can make that habitual then the sword work and reading which I want to do will be a piece of cake. And with this group I think it'll give me the accountability I need.
For almost a decade i have known and been interested in HEMA. But a majority of these years have been spent in crippling depression and just lack of opportunity to pursue it. I actually joined the SCA because there was no HEMA group for 120mi around me. They have a martial practice fairly new and similar to hema known as Cut & Thrust.
Well... I found out the local group had no steel fighters whatsoever. A year and a half later I remain the only authorized fighter in central Oregon. Luckily though, circumstances have changed...
For one, I've managed to overcome the depression; it was mostly induced by my undiagnosed diabetes which i have subsequently turned around. Second, I have the ability to travel that 120mi distance on the weekend to participate with my fellow SCAdians. But also, Bend now has its first HEMA club, it's italian, but still... we got HEMA.
I've also taken it upon me to just start practicing on my own which i personally find difficult because I lack discipline to be curt about it. Hence this 30 for 30
Within the HEMAA FB group someone created a group to help create accountability. For 30 min a day for 30 Days I've committed to practicing to 1) not only get in the habit, but 2) Finally start to really take this shit seriously.
Today wasn't much of a practice but I did get 30min in. First half I drilled on some cuts and footwork, and then read my copy of Meyer's Kunst des Fechtens. I have learned that I will definitely need to dedicate more than 30min a day, physically i need to work on cardio so I can do the drills and increase my skill. so I think my 30min will be dedicated to that alone, and perhaps keep swordwork and read separate. Exercise has always been my biggest down fall, if i can make that habitual then the sword work and reading which I want to do will be a piece of cake. And with this group I think it'll give me the accountability I need.
Friday, January 1, 2016
A statement of intent
With this New Year about nine hours old and my previous post coming the day before with what was a brief history of myself, there seems to be an undertone of New Year's resolution to all this. And you're right.
Journaling is something I am familiar with and have done in the past, but I've had trouble with consistency in keeping up with it. Kinda makes me think that whole '21 days" or whatever of doing something to make it habitual is a bit bullshit. But I'm really hoping this will stick for a few reasons.
So I hope to expect this to be a somewhat busy blog in trying to keep up with all this. In addition I want to do long rambly posts on topics of interest to me that aren't covered in this post already. Like magic as i explore animism more. And politics, as an anarchist I have shit to say about it all. And maybe private life stuff too, may just keep a physical journal for that though.
But mostly a journal to keep track of shit and (hopefully) keep me accountable. which is what I really need.
Journaling is something I am familiar with and have done in the past, but I've had trouble with consistency in keeping up with it. Kinda makes me think that whole '21 days" or whatever of doing something to make it habitual is a bit bullshit. But I'm really hoping this will stick for a few reasons.
- Jounaling in the past has been theraputic and beneficial to me for the multiple reasons I've done it.
- This format allows me to flesh out more my thoughts, allows more detail and nuance to explore thoughts and ideas and perhaps explain myself better.
- Social media is fucking bonkers and this is the only real alternative i really know of and hope to do away with it all, but I can settle with killing Facebook, the worst offender to humanity.
- TV is a big one, Love to ditch it for the most part. finish whatever shows I've already started and like, don't start new ones.
- Dedicate more time to my actual interests like:
- Historical European Martial Arts (HEMA)
- My metalsmithing, to get better and become self employed
- SCA, the living history group I'm with
So I hope to expect this to be a somewhat busy blog in trying to keep up with all this. In addition I want to do long rambly posts on topics of interest to me that aren't covered in this post already. Like magic as i explore animism more. And politics, as an anarchist I have shit to say about it all. And maybe private life stuff too, may just keep a physical journal for that though.
But mostly a journal to keep track of shit and (hopefully) keep me accountable. which is what I really need.
Thursday, December 31, 2015
Another new start.
It's New Years Eve. Three years ago today, almost exactly at the time I'm publishing this, I was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes and haven't been the same since.
When I was diagnosed my normal 215lb body was under 150 and was close to death. the only way i could cry was in silent prayer for release. When the doctor told me my blood sugar almost 500 (normal range is 70-120) all I could matter-of-factly say was, "oh."
Once I got insulin into my body and my blood sugars started to normalize i felt a relief and new lease on life. Two months afterwards I actually had a dream that i was traveling through the Egyptian underground toward final judgement and half way through a disembodied voice came to me and helped me escape to the surface. That visit from the psychopomp still resonates with me and I'll never forget it. The message I got was, "This is not how you will die, you got a lot more to do here."And although the purpose is still unclear, it really has been an interesting three years so far.
I also started probation for marijuana possession the next day. so my first 18mo were actually restrictive. But this allowed me to concentrate on getting healthy. I read and read about diabetes and was able to get my sugars down and consistent with relative ease. This first year I went down from an HbA1c of 16% at diagnosis to 5.9% in nine months.
I hovered around 6% for the following year being a little more relaxed in my diet; meat and veggies only almost literally was getting a bit tiring. But i still managed to stay just above that 6%. In June that second year My aunt died. I was at the end of my probation, this is when the good things started to happen.
My probation officer gave me a call after i turned in my permission slip to got out of state (she lived in LA) and told me I don't need the permission because I was being taken off probation! (there was a possibility of it being extended another 18mo) So I could once again travel as I please; which is nice because I love to travel and hope to do more of it because I don't have the opportunity to do much of it.
Second, I got to go to my aunts funeral and actually grieve. I didn't get this opportunity when her son, my cousin, died a few years earlier. I have yet to visit the tree that was planted with his ashes, which is growing wonderfully from what I understand, my uncles visits it regularly. My aunt was a wonderful but sickly woman, some of it self induced, but was every bit the Texas sweetheart from Amarillo you'd expect.
Third, on the greyhound down to LA I actually met a red haired woman that kinda clued me in to these happenings being significant. Although I didn't get physical with Babalon, we did get intimate for those 24hrs we were with each other. And she helped re-awaken my desire for companionship which has been going well recently.
Fourth, I got a job a few weeks after I returned from the funeral. For the last year and a half i have been making jewelry as a forger/fabricator and Nashelle Designs. A great job, and a good start to my career in metalworking. Going to college for 3-4 years and getting nothing out of it helped me to realize pursuing a trade was the way to go. I do not regret dropping out, besides I have found another avenue for my intellectual pursuits. . .
. . . Living History. More on that later.
When I was diagnosed my normal 215lb body was under 150 and was close to death. the only way i could cry was in silent prayer for release. When the doctor told me my blood sugar almost 500 (normal range is 70-120) all I could matter-of-factly say was, "oh."
Once I got insulin into my body and my blood sugars started to normalize i felt a relief and new lease on life. Two months afterwards I actually had a dream that i was traveling through the Egyptian underground toward final judgement and half way through a disembodied voice came to me and helped me escape to the surface. That visit from the psychopomp still resonates with me and I'll never forget it. The message I got was, "This is not how you will die, you got a lot more to do here."And although the purpose is still unclear, it really has been an interesting three years so far.
I also started probation for marijuana possession the next day. so my first 18mo were actually restrictive. But this allowed me to concentrate on getting healthy. I read and read about diabetes and was able to get my sugars down and consistent with relative ease. This first year I went down from an HbA1c of 16% at diagnosis to 5.9% in nine months.
I hovered around 6% for the following year being a little more relaxed in my diet; meat and veggies only almost literally was getting a bit tiring. But i still managed to stay just above that 6%. In June that second year My aunt died. I was at the end of my probation, this is when the good things started to happen.
My probation officer gave me a call after i turned in my permission slip to got out of state (she lived in LA) and told me I don't need the permission because I was being taken off probation! (there was a possibility of it being extended another 18mo) So I could once again travel as I please; which is nice because I love to travel and hope to do more of it because I don't have the opportunity to do much of it.
Second, I got to go to my aunts funeral and actually grieve. I didn't get this opportunity when her son, my cousin, died a few years earlier. I have yet to visit the tree that was planted with his ashes, which is growing wonderfully from what I understand, my uncles visits it regularly. My aunt was a wonderful but sickly woman, some of it self induced, but was every bit the Texas sweetheart from Amarillo you'd expect.
Third, on the greyhound down to LA I actually met a red haired woman that kinda clued me in to these happenings being significant. Although I didn't get physical with Babalon, we did get intimate for those 24hrs we were with each other. And she helped re-awaken my desire for companionship which has been going well recently.
Fourth, I got a job a few weeks after I returned from the funeral. For the last year and a half i have been making jewelry as a forger/fabricator and Nashelle Designs. A great job, and a good start to my career in metalworking. Going to college for 3-4 years and getting nothing out of it helped me to realize pursuing a trade was the way to go. I do not regret dropping out, besides I have found another avenue for my intellectual pursuits. . .
. . . Living History. More on that later.
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