Home
So, this weekend was supposed to be set aside for doing the last of my corrections and polishing up the thesis for handin on Tuesday, as well as getting a couple of little builds for Socks And Puppets out the way.
Then I got a phone call.
Turns out the University of Sussex Fencing Club is once again running the Brighton Open this year, a big fencing tournament that sees a wide range of skills and people from all over the country. Naturally, it includes a cafe, armoury and bake sale. Except... one of the armourers is in Finland, being trained for his new job, and the event's too big for one armourer to handle alone.
I was the club armourer for oh, going on five years: I basically kept that club's kit cupboard running with duct tape and string till we got a budget, then bought and maintained all the kit they currently use. I happen to like them. So when they called me, asked me to hop back into the saddle and get them out of a bind, of course I said yes. I need to be there at 0830 in the morning on Sunday the 8th of May to set up pistes, spin up the armoury, lay out a workshop, ...
Waitaminute.
What am I doing still up? *z*
So.
I'm still here, as you've probably surmised from the fact that I'm talking, and it's been a busy few months. Doesn't look like it's going to get any better any time soon either, so while this is an update, it's not a return to the old frequency of posting, at least not yet. Sorry about that, if it bothers you.
Hell, some of you may be enjoying the break.
Anyway, yes. I'm currently writing my thesis, and it's draining pretty much any reserves I have of cope, happy and other useful things, so I'm ... well, not so much fun to be around at the moment. For that I'm sorry. I hope people will put up with me leeching sanity from them for a little while.
In my Copious Free Time, I am still gaming. Maelstrom event 1 was a few weeks back, and was a fair bit of fun - the wind and rain and mud weren't great, but the rest of the event made up for it, and next event promises to be better for a variety of reasons. Here's hoping.
Also, a group of friends (Firecat Masquerade) have started running a fest-larp system based loosely on Kenneth Graham's Wind in the Willows. Because I am mad, but also because they needed the help and it's a great way to burn off stress, I've volunteered to crew it. Event 1 was an astounding success by all accounts, and hopefully event 2 will be at least as good. Since E2 is set a little over a month after my thesis handin deadline, I may be slightly crazed at that point. But it'll be fiiiiiine.
Fencing ... is not going so well. Despite being on the committee, due to noone else standing for armourer and the club needing one, I've not made it to the great majority of training sessions this year. Feel quite crap about this, as they do rely on me to some extent, but there are people there who can repair most things, and two full evenings a week is simply more than I can spare at the moment. I managed to get along tonight, and they were only slightly pissed off, which is comforting. So it goes. Will persevere there, and might even fence again at some point.
To sum up, life is hard, real damn hard right now, but I'm still cracking on with it. I'm doing some slightly crazy stuff in an effort to stay sane, and trying not to neglect my obligations, tricky though that is in turn. I aim to write some more here soon, so stay tuned. Distinct risk of pseudophilosophical bullshit, but I guess we'll see what happens.
It's got to be better than total radio silence, right?
So, it's been a few weeks since the last Maelstrom of the year, and I can feel the urge to be someone else for an afternoon starting to gnaw at the edges of my consciousness. A few of my friends are working on maybe putting together a linear system for use in Brighton, and there's Brighton Below in November, and of course I should try to get along to the semi-official Fools and Heroes game that runs monthly here. I've heard mixed reviews of the Fools and Heroes rules and setting, but don't knock it till you've tried it, right?
Maelstrom was good, though. A festival hosted by the faithful was always going to be quite religion-biased, and the laws were quite restrictive (less so for males than females, lol Islamic-template-religion), but on the whole, I think it went well. We went there with a small set of goals, and came away having completed most of a larger, completely different set, so ... success, sort of.
Enough froth. The fencing club will start meeting again soon, so since I'm the armourer I need to see what state the kit's in and repair any damage, restock worn parts and flat batteries, and get ready for the start of the year. The club meets at the same time as the Portslade gaming group, and since I'm an officer at the club, I kinda have to be there, which doesn't help my desire to play RPGs any. So it goes. It just means that this Tuesday is the last time I'll be able to see that group of friends until December. Hmm. Have to fix that, somehow.
The Freshers are on campus now, and the old place is starting back up. I have to admit, I am looking forward to another year's worth of young people to meet, and to train. I wonder who we'll see this year? I'm always surprised by the sheer variety of people we get, and how the best fencers are absolutely not the people you expect.
The title of this entry refers to something that makes me slightly sad, but also happy. As you may be aware, I cycle most places and take trains the rest, owing to not having a car (and also as part of the ongoing, and currently stalled, Operation Not Being A Fat Bastard). However, my bicycle needed a new rear hub a while back, which meant a wheel rebuild, which apparently I didn't do very well. Constant tuning and three snapped spokes later, I'm biting the bullet and paying BikeHut to rebuild the wheel for me. Since the price is fairly reasonable, and includes gear and brake retunes and cheap new cables for both of the above, I'm not overly complaining. Still, I'm an engineering student, and I feel like I should be able to do these things myself. I suppose I can claim that my time is more valuable than theirs, but ... eh, justifications. Whether I can actually afford it, until my new funding arrangement starts working properly, is a question I can't actually answer till I see my payslip for this month (there's about a 33% chance I won't be paid the right amount this month due to admin failures) I've enough in savings to get by, it's just a pain.
Onward, ever onward. I've just found what could be a fairly significant timing problem in the work we're doing right now, so I should probably stop blogging and start working again.
OK, last Maelstrom post for a bit, then I promise normal service will be resumed. Or what passes for normal around here, anyway.
Having finally finished working out who the character I played is, and where he comes from, and a hundred other little details that mean nothing to anyone but me, but will define how he develops in the next and subsequent festivals, I find myself a little disappointed in my performance at event 1. I didn't really play the character so much as play myself and a stereotype. The character I now have, after writing a bit of his history, is very similar but subtly different in several places, and had he been that (much more rounded, complete) individual at event 1, some things might have been a bit different...
Meh. Spilt milk, and it's all behind me: at event 2, the character will be complete, properly kitted etc, and things should be even better than they were at event 1. I hope.
Now, in and around writing my thesis, going to German class and the other load of things I'm doing at the moment, I have to try to find the time to learn some Viking epics to recite next time I'm asked for a story :)
Oh, incidentally, the University Fencing Club are running a tournament on Sunday at the campus sports centre. People are welcome to spectate if they're in the area, though I suspect most who would are already attending.
Whenever I'm at a fencing competition, I always upgrade something. Might be something small, might not be. Last time I replaced the guard on my weapon, this time I bought the last few parts to build a complete second weapon (at competitions, each fencer should really have at least two to cover failures on piste: weapon failure without an immediate replacement is a cardable offence). The second weapon is configured slightly differently from my current main weapon - same parts, different set on the blade - so I'll see how it plays, and then probably match the configuration of one to the other later. It's a question of finding out which configuration works better, then standardising on it so I can switch weapons mid-bout without confusing myself. Anyway, on to the point of the post.
The reason I do this is complicated, and tricky to verbalise. An upgrade, a new or repaired part, sets me in a positive frame of mind: it forces me to check the weapon and accompanying kit afterward to make sure the fix has 'taken', so I know it's all to spec and working. Also, I've improved my equipment by some small amount, which sets me up nicely for the actual fencing. It occurs to me that this is not really any different from the 'nice clothes' effect - nice clothes make you feel better, readier to take on the world. When you dress up for an evening out, on average, you feel better about yourself than when you're in a grungy t-shirt and shorts, sitting about watching TV (or at least, that's my experience). So many little things, details of our daily equipment and clothing, make such a big difference to us but would never be noticed by anyone else. It's almost like they're a modern-day talisman, an item we wear to protect ourselves from the bad things in the world, or to influence fortune in our favour.
Do you have a pair of earrings given to you by your grandmother, or a lucky piece of clothing you wear to interviews? A favourite pen, perhaps, that you keep more than just because it writes well or is comfortable, but because when you use it you feel more positive about the outcome of whatever you're doing? Little things, that don't mean anything to anyone else, but which you carry around anyway because they make you feel different. Better. Ready to take on whatever you're doing, and succeed.
Maybe it's silly. Maybe you really don't have any personal talismans: I know I do, not that I tell people what they are. I don't believe they have any mystic power, if that's what you're thinking: they're just Stuff, and the memories and associations they carry with them in my mind are what matters, what makes them work. In the case of fencing kit, it's that I enjoy working on simple mechanisms, and going into a bout knowing my kit has just been stripped, cleaned and rebuilt sets my mind at ease and lets me concentrate on my opponent. The fact that I know why they work doesn't diminish that power one iota.