S.A.D., The Hawk, and the Tournament
Welcome again and wow, yes, it has indeed been a while yet again, and it seems I've been making a habit of posting on Sundays (edit: OK, so Sunday I got a bit dead and am finishing this today, Monday). *smiles* As Kristen did tell me, "You didn't write anything down for Valentine's Day!!!" All, ok well most, will be told in today's entry.
Nothing too notable happened on Monday, Singles' Awareness Day, until the evening. Lab came and went like the morning fog, but I do think that Nicole (a girl with some crazy-long hair that I tried to get to come to fencing some weeks ago) was waiting for me to say something poetic a number of times while she was making her rounds around the lab during the down time to socialize. The week before (2-6-05, that one) I got her thinking about lab as being a valid target to create poems about. Honestly, I have no idea what lines I was conjuring up on the spot, but I do admit, with a bit of ego, that some of them were quite good despite the source of inspiration, proteins and reagents. A part of me twitched and said I should consider this possibility much like when I ran into Jennae last Friday; however I categorized it under the "Valentine's Day is Coming, Check the Hormones" file. Yes, my dear readers, at times I seem to act almost rational, that is to say not driven completely by testosterone.
Later, on Valentine's Day, I got the message from Adam (Laskowski) to see if I could gather up a few more singles to go celebrate Singles' Awareness Day. Sure enough, we gathered up a small crew and headed out to Outback Steakhouse, to get some eats. Sharon had to ditch us because she actually had a romantic interest so it was all stag. At Outback we found that it was a lovely 2-hour wait to even get the buzzer to wait for a table. We found the same wait time at Red Lobster so we decided to ditch Vacaville and head to Fairfield where we had a bit more of a choice as to where to go. Fresh Choice is where our final destination lay, so salad it was. Good salad, some good soup, and to top it off, several rounds of dessert . . . OH YEAH. Binging? I wouldn't exactly call it that, but damn that was a lot of fatty dessert. We all toasted to being single and unattached then had random conversation about random videogame stuff before charging off into the night once again to dream of crazy graphics and women. The constant downpour matched the wonderful mood of Singles' Awareness Day quite nicely for those in the car.
Tuesday's practice was spent running all over the place seeing to various things and helping various fencers out with their game. I'm not the best foilist by far, but I figured I could show some noobs a thing or two they can use at the tournament, which I saw employed. The Hawk didn't get a chance to so much as fly beside the Nightengale for more than a fleeting moment before being pulled away for this or that. *considers speaking via story* OK, so the Hawk had a plan which he hinted at to the lead raptor who then misunderstood the message to pass on to another raptor who ended up asking the Hawk about a plan for many when the original plan involved only two (ooo, now that was a mouthful, and yet strangely it makes sense to me). Upon seeing that a small group might work better the Hawk went with the new plan. The following night the Hawk kept his eye on the goal and did indeed wade through the masses, spending only enough time with others in the flock before picking his time and making his final descent to fly by the Nightengale. *smiles* The Nightengale was glad to fly with the Hawk and continue in said fashion. Later that night the Lead Raptor was forced to pull out of the plan with the small group, taking all others with him, leaving the Hawk to fly solo, so to speak. The Hawk did speak with the Nightengale and distressed at finding her in a weakened state. While the Nightengale did say she wished to be in the Hawk's company despite the dispersal of the group her sickness kept her downed for the time being. So our Hawk did indeed fly solo that night, though his visage was saturated with a smile that had the message, "Be patient, your partner in aerial ballet may indeed be found . . . be patient."
The UCB tourney was this past Saturday, and DAMN did I do horrid. Things didn't start off too well when I was thwacked by my fellow Davis sabreists during drills and fencing. The thumb would spaz-out every so often causing me to parry horribly or not make a cut the way I wanted to make it. In the pools I ended up going 2-4, which was disheartening, but not entirely so. Several key points in my bouts I should have won. I knew what I needed to do to beat my opponent, I knew when I needed to act, I just didn't have it in me to act!!! UGH!!! I attribute this to a lack of fencing on my part. With Sam's girlfriend, who I injured *hangs his head in shame, "I'm a horrible person"* slightly for having her hand in target area, I knew exactly what kind of style to expect from her. I knew that she was all about one, large attack that I simply needed to draw out, dodge/pary (with distance or the blade), and capitalize on the imbalance of said attack. I didn't do it *shakes his head*. In the DEs I went up against MacFarland again, and lost 10-2. While people were all saying, "There's nothing you could have done" or something along the lines of, "Yeah, you were bound to lose no matter what" I knew that there was a LOT I could have done. Sure, he wasn't waiting for me to bring the attack to him and started on his own attacks I knew I could have done SO much more. As George was saying, "You had the right idea, just never came together." I saw preparation, I beat the blade and ended up getting caught on the guard on the way in. I saw and made my parry, but again the blade caught guard. Eventually I took to holding the parry and hitting him as he passed by, which Regina's Chris took a picture of. At that point, the hole was really quite deep to climb out of, and he caught me on my mistakes. As I see it, there's nothing too wrong with the tactics or my ability to see what my opponent is about but simply in the application of the moves to make those two work together. So what's the main goals for me now until the next tournament? FENCE MORE and work on mobility and distance.
Sunday I was dead . . . quite dead . . . and it kind of continued on over to today (Monday). Now we start another lovely round of midterms in ALJAYville. Tomorrow MCB 121, Wednesday we have a lab practical in MCB 120L, and to top it off another midterm on Friday for P-Chem . . . doom, thy name is P-Chem!!!
Nothing too notable happened on Monday, Singles' Awareness Day, until the evening. Lab came and went like the morning fog, but I do think that Nicole (a girl with some crazy-long hair that I tried to get to come to fencing some weeks ago) was waiting for me to say something poetic a number of times while she was making her rounds around the lab during the down time to socialize. The week before (2-6-05, that one) I got her thinking about lab as being a valid target to create poems about. Honestly, I have no idea what lines I was conjuring up on the spot, but I do admit, with a bit of ego, that some of them were quite good despite the source of inspiration, proteins and reagents. A part of me twitched and said I should consider this possibility much like when I ran into Jennae last Friday; however I categorized it under the "Valentine's Day is Coming, Check the Hormones" file. Yes, my dear readers, at times I seem to act almost rational, that is to say not driven completely by testosterone.
Later, on Valentine's Day, I got the message from Adam (Laskowski) to see if I could gather up a few more singles to go celebrate Singles' Awareness Day. Sure enough, we gathered up a small crew and headed out to Outback Steakhouse, to get some eats. Sharon had to ditch us because she actually had a romantic interest so it was all stag. At Outback we found that it was a lovely 2-hour wait to even get the buzzer to wait for a table. We found the same wait time at Red Lobster so we decided to ditch Vacaville and head to Fairfield where we had a bit more of a choice as to where to go. Fresh Choice is where our final destination lay, so salad it was. Good salad, some good soup, and to top it off, several rounds of dessert . . . OH YEAH. Binging? I wouldn't exactly call it that, but damn that was a lot of fatty dessert. We all toasted to being single and unattached then had random conversation about random videogame stuff before charging off into the night once again to dream of crazy graphics and women. The constant downpour matched the wonderful mood of Singles' Awareness Day quite nicely for those in the car.
Tuesday's practice was spent running all over the place seeing to various things and helping various fencers out with their game. I'm not the best foilist by far, but I figured I could show some noobs a thing or two they can use at the tournament, which I saw employed. The Hawk didn't get a chance to so much as fly beside the Nightengale for more than a fleeting moment before being pulled away for this or that. *considers speaking via story* OK, so the Hawk had a plan which he hinted at to the lead raptor who then misunderstood the message to pass on to another raptor who ended up asking the Hawk about a plan for many when the original plan involved only two (ooo, now that was a mouthful, and yet strangely it makes sense to me). Upon seeing that a small group might work better the Hawk went with the new plan. The following night the Hawk kept his eye on the goal and did indeed wade through the masses, spending only enough time with others in the flock before picking his time and making his final descent to fly by the Nightengale. *smiles* The Nightengale was glad to fly with the Hawk and continue in said fashion. Later that night the Lead Raptor was forced to pull out of the plan with the small group, taking all others with him, leaving the Hawk to fly solo, so to speak. The Hawk did speak with the Nightengale and distressed at finding her in a weakened state. While the Nightengale did say she wished to be in the Hawk's company despite the dispersal of the group her sickness kept her downed for the time being. So our Hawk did indeed fly solo that night, though his visage was saturated with a smile that had the message, "Be patient, your partner in aerial ballet may indeed be found . . . be patient."
The UCB tourney was this past Saturday, and DAMN did I do horrid. Things didn't start off too well when I was thwacked by my fellow Davis sabreists during drills and fencing. The thumb would spaz-out every so often causing me to parry horribly or not make a cut the way I wanted to make it. In the pools I ended up going 2-4, which was disheartening, but not entirely so. Several key points in my bouts I should have won. I knew what I needed to do to beat my opponent, I knew when I needed to act, I just didn't have it in me to act!!! UGH!!! I attribute this to a lack of fencing on my part. With Sam's girlfriend, who I injured *hangs his head in shame, "I'm a horrible person"* slightly for having her hand in target area, I knew exactly what kind of style to expect from her. I knew that she was all about one, large attack that I simply needed to draw out, dodge/pary (with distance or the blade), and capitalize on the imbalance of said attack. I didn't do it *shakes his head*. In the DEs I went up against MacFarland again, and lost 10-2. While people were all saying, "There's nothing you could have done" or something along the lines of, "Yeah, you were bound to lose no matter what" I knew that there was a LOT I could have done. Sure, he wasn't waiting for me to bring the attack to him and started on his own attacks I knew I could have done SO much more. As George was saying, "You had the right idea, just never came together." I saw preparation, I beat the blade and ended up getting caught on the guard on the way in. I saw and made my parry, but again the blade caught guard. Eventually I took to holding the parry and hitting him as he passed by, which Regina's Chris took a picture of. At that point, the hole was really quite deep to climb out of, and he caught me on my mistakes. As I see it, there's nothing too wrong with the tactics or my ability to see what my opponent is about but simply in the application of the moves to make those two work together. So what's the main goals for me now until the next tournament? FENCE MORE and work on mobility and distance.
Sunday I was dead . . . quite dead . . . and it kind of continued on over to today (Monday). Now we start another lovely round of midterms in ALJAYville. Tomorrow MCB 121, Wednesday we have a lab practical in MCB 120L, and to top it off another midterm on Friday for P-Chem . . . doom, thy name is P-Chem!!!