Archive for June, 2008

Grant and Al’s place

Published by
jessi
at June 30, 2008 in In Good Company. 4 Comments

So we ended up leaving Wizard World at like 4 PM. We didn’t know if our services would be needed at Grant and Al’s, though (that and we didn’t know where the place was) so we thought we would call ahead.

I kinda figured that Grant and Al wouldn’t necessarily be able to reach their phones (I envisioned them delegating duties or holding boxes or something of that nature) so I gave Chris O’s phone a ring instead.

At first, things were kind of vague; there was talk of errands or some such, but no one really knew exactly what errands we would be sent on. Eventually, it was determined that we would be more a hindrance than anything else at that particular moment, so we ended up going back to the Settlement first.

Bert was conquering things when we arrived. We put on the Cubs/Sox game to have something on, and for the most part we just chillaxed. There was talk of food, and for whatever reason I really had a taste for mac ‘n’ cheese, like the Kraft blue box kind. We ended up settling on Wendy’s though, which was just as five-by-five.

We got a phone call from Chris around 6 or so, letting us know that the apartment was more or less ready for unofficial gathering (I think GrAl had designs on having a apartment warming, but I’m not really sure). I got directions from Al, and after some additional chilling, we were on our merry way.

Yoss Mike was still tired from wandering around the convention and having had only four-ish hours of sleep the night before (he and VoW went to a wedding), so Toni drove Bug-Bug (I don’t know if he gets a hyphen, but it seemed right). I’ve never ridden in Bug-Bug before, so I was pretty excited.

It seemed to me that we were on the road forever, but I think maybe that was just because I’d never been to their place before and usually for me, the first time visiting a place is always forever long. I was trying to figure out if it was farther than Downers Grove or not ‘cuz I used to drive there all the time to visit Scott. In my head, it was closer than Scott’s place, but I could very well be making that up.

We had a minor mishap involving a mostly covered street sign, but after we realized we missed the street, we turned around and found the apartment building right quick.

Grant and Al’s place was in the back corner of the courtyard. I thought it was cool that they got a courtyard out of the deal. It was a nice brick building, and it made me think of university. You know, ‘cuz we all lived in apartments and stuffs eventually. We were fortunate enough to have Rich spot us from the window, so the door was already buzzing when we got into the entrance.

The apartment itself has hardwood floors and such. The little entryway had its own closet and opened up into the front room. I think there might be like a super technical name for it, but in apartments, I always think of it as a front room for whatever reason. There was a bit of a hallway that had the bedroom to the right and then if you turn left it brings you to the dining room. I so rarely think of apartments having dining rooms, but I’m pretty sure that’s what the room is called ‘cuz the kitchen was a place of its very own.

I hung out in that room initially, telling folk about the convention and how much it sucked that Michael Turner died, and also about the lack of autographs thing. Mr. and Mrs. Price were there too. I dunno if they cared much about comics, but Mrs. Price seemed to feign interest in it.

I kinda missed out on the Al-tour thing ‘cuz I was too busy talking about comics, so I made me Da do it. So very straight forward. I mean, walking through the place to start out with kinda gave me an idea of the layout of the apartment, but it’s always nice to get an official tour. For whatever reason, I really liked the closet with the pipes. They’re not like for water or anything, they just seem to be there for hanging stuff.

To me, the apartment is ginormous. But then again, my perception of apartments has changed greatly in the last two years. I still think it’s incredibly suitable for hosting gatherings and whatnot.

For whatever reason, I found myself in the dining room again. I think it’s ‘cuz it has a table and I seem to like tables. Mr. Price came out of the kitchen and said something to me about taking care of Lucy. I’d been mishearing people all day so at first, I had no idea what he was talking about. Yoss Mike had to interpret for me. He said something about paying me, which sent me into a panic. I liked hanging out with Lucy, it gave me something to do, and I got to watch TV, so it wasn’t really a chore at all. That and Lucy is pretty easy-going and not at all demandy. Since I’m a spaz, I ended up fleeing the room.

I wandered into the front room where most everyone else seemed to be. I found myself a spot on the floor and just sat down. There were these sheets that needed to be laundered, though, so I decided to tag along with Logan and Al to the laundry room. It also gave me an opportunity to use the kitchen entrance. I thought that was cool.

Logan took us around the building. He said there were two ways to get into the laundry room, but he wanted to take us the creepy way first. He wasn’t kidding when he said it was creepy. The hallway to the entrance was kinda scary. When we paused at the door to use the key, I couldn’t help but notice there was a little space between beside the door. It was something like a gap between the side of the building and wherever we were. I looked up to see sky and pipes and I totally thought about Fray’s shower. I kinda laughed to myself envisioning Grant and Al trying to use that space as a shower (and because I have the feeling y’all are jerks, I mean the part where they balance between the bricks on the side of each wall, not the naked part — jerks!).

Walking through the storage area was like a scene out of a horror movie. I could totally see that place as a set for one. There were creepy lights, and shadowy corners and a cement floor. (Hmmm. I wonder if Weise needs to film a creepy horror movie murder scene…) I for one wouldn’t ever want to do laundry there, especially at night! It didn’t seem too bad during the day once you actually got to the laundry area, but it certainly seemed like the creepy kind of place where people could totally jump out at you from one of the corners and drag you off in a burlap sack. (I hope Grant and Al carry a weapon of some kind when they go to do laundry.)

When we got to the machines, Al realized she didn’t bring any detergent. It didn’t seem to matter, though ‘cuz it turns out everyone just leaves theirs in the laundry room, marked with their apartment numbers.

We ended up “borrowing” a cap full.

The way out was far less scary, just a little blue hallway with a precariously hanging ceiling light.

I wish I could remember what we did thereafter, but I really cant. I remember going back into the front room and hanging out on the floor. I also remember hanging out at the dining room table. While I was sitting there, I came to the sad realization that I can always find neat reading spots in other people’s places, but not mine own. ‘Tis most frustrating.

Evan came by at some point during the night. I thought it was really great to see him ‘cuz I think it’s been like three years since I’d seen him last. Weise also put in an appearance.

Everyone ended up leaving the apartment at 11.

I’m really glad that Grant and Al have their own place. It’s doubly awesome that it’s such a nice place. Grant was saying there are a few things that he wishes they would have noticed more before, like the fact that the dumpster is right under their bedroom window, but the most part he’s satisfied with the find.

I hope to be able to visit the apartment again some time.

Wizard World Chicago 2008

Published by
jessi
at June 29, 2008 in Arts and Entertainment. 0 Comments

I got to go to Wizard World Chicago again yesterday; I still can’t believe it’s been four years since I was there last. This time about, Yoss Mike, VoW, and Toni joined in.

I got us advanced tickets at Keith’s Komix, which meant that we were able to get into the convention an hour earlier than the general admission. Unfortunately for us, we had a bit of a late start. I blame Dixie mostly.

I think its been quite some time since any of us have ever been to the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center and we were a bit uncertain of if we were headed in the right direction…then we started seeing all the geeks and just kinda followed the stream of ‘em headed to the place. How could we tell they were geeks? While none of the ones we saw on the sidewalk were dressed up, several of them were carrying long boxes, which is usually a sure sign of some geekery.

We got to walk on the cool walkway thingy that I remembered from the last time I was there. Once we got to the main entrance, we were a little bit at a loss. According to the yellow paper that I got with the tickets, because we were advanced ticket holders, we were supposed to get some special comic. I remembered getting stuff like that the last time, too, only we got the stuff right when we bought our tickets at the door.

It was determined that we would be able to get the “goodie bags” at any time during the conference, so we decided to just go on inside. There was already a line forming for something or another, but we weren’t really sure what it was. Yoss Mike was all kinds of ask-guy and discovered that the line was for Gail Simone. I’ve never really read anything by Gail Simone, so I didn’t get in line. Although, I’ve heard nothing but good things about her. She’s cool if anything ‘cuz she’s like one of the few female mainstream comic book writers. How cool is that? She’s also credited with “Women in the Refrigerator Syndrome”, which I’ve also known as “Girlfriend in the Refrigerator Syndrome”…basically, what it all comes down to is some chick gets stuffed into a refrigerator all because she’s involved with a superhero or is in the superhero business.

We found the line for Brian Michael Bendis. I had brought some of his comics with me just in case…but truth be told, I was rather reluctant to get in line for him. I do know his stuff, and I did bring House of M with me…but I just didn’t care as much.

Yoss Mike and VoW came for the guest of honor himself Warren Ellis. Again, I know of some of his work, but I am not the fan that the two of them are. I’ve only read his mainstream stuff, and even that I have little of. I brought the Dream Nails Trilogy he wrote for Excalibur, which was once my favorite comic, but that’s only ‘cuz Shadowcat was on the team.

We discovered that if we spent $20 at the Avatar booth, we could be put in the fast track for Warren Ellis. He would sign whatever we bought plus up to five other books. This appealed to Mike greatly, seeing as how the lines for other folk seemed forever long. He and VoW both made it onto the fast track while Toni and I opted for a not so much.

One of VoW’s friends once removed met up with us at the Avatar booth. His name was Dan and he knew VoW through a friend or some such, although this would be the first time Dan and VoW would meet. He was a nice enough guy, and he knew his comics. It’s always fun to talk comics with a fellow comic book geek, or at least one who knows the mainstream folk as well as the quirky cool independent types. I mean, he got my Michael Turner mourning. Since VoW and Mike were gonna be in line, Toni and I invited him to tag along with us, but he said he was going to the Wonder Woman panel at 11.

Toni and I ended up wandering around a bit while the other two were in line. It was while Mike and Vicki were buying their $20 worth of Avatar stuff that I discovered Geoff Johns would only be doing a panel and not signing comics. He was the reason why I wanted to come to the convention, so I was pretty bummed about that. That on top of finding out that Michael Turner died kinda put a huge damper on my Wizard World experience, at least the part where I stand in line for hours to get stuff signed.

‘Twas all right though ‘cuz at least I got to be amongst my kind of geeks. Toni and I found some fun displays, ones with swords and dragons, and comics of course. We discovered four different eating spots, each one better than the last. I know it sounds weird, but the other time I was at Wizard World, Grant, Al and I ended up standing to eat. I was kinda hoping to sit down this year. It turns out there actually is a place to sit down, so that’s where we decided we would eat lunch.

I couldn’t tell you how long we wandered around the convention before making our way back to the line for Warren Ellis. It seems the guest of honor overslept or some such ‘cuz of the panel he did the night before…and all the whiskey he drank at said panel. I thought that was awesome. It seems Mr Ellis is all kinds of laid back at his panels.

Toni and I took to the Artists’ Alley thereafter. It was a bit sparse when we got there, and we only made it down two rows or so before I decided I totally wanted to eat something. We decided to go back to the food court type area we found not far from the Avatar booth, get something to eat, and have a chance to sit down while we waited for our friends.

The tables were a bit occupied, so we ended up having to find a not-as-occupied one and asking to sit down. I wasn’t as thrown off by having to do that as much as I usually am, I think it had to do with the fact that I knew everyone in the place was a geek and therefore, not as scary to me as non-geek people. It takes a certain personality to dress up like a storm trooper and other such colorful characters.

Five seconds after sitting down (I totally wanted to try the “no sooner had we…” sentence, but totally backed out), we were contacted by our peoples. Toni gave them some kind of direction to the food court thingy and I decided that I should go and find them. I wasn’t really thinking ‘cuz when I returned with our party in tow, Toni was chatting with the fellow at the table.

It seemed harmless enough, but most of us are rather wary of people. At first glance, I didn’t think Toni minded; heck, she even drew a dragon for the guy. (I guess he was one of those sketch collectors that turn up at these things.) It wasn’t until after he was on his merry way that I learned that Toni wanted to knife me in the throat. Okay, so it wasn’t that bad. But it was weird.

Meh. Only one hazard of going to a con, me thinks.

Mike and VoW filled us in on the Warren Ellis signing. They were pleased to learn that the Warren Ellis series they both read, Planetary, will indeed be published soon. I blame Joss Whedon for the hold up. He and John Cassaday were working on Astonishing X-Men which kept Cassaday from Planetary (he’s the artist in case you didn’t catch that). I know it’s not really the Master’s fault, but I’m clearly still bitter about my girl being lost in space.

I asked Dan about the Wonder Woman panel; it was with Gail Simone and Greg Rucka. I thought it was hilarious that Rucka was all kinds of justifying the whole “Wonder Woman killed Maxwell Lord in cold-blood” thing. Rucka was hoping to like write some sort of redeeming thing and the next thing he knew he was off the book. And let’s face it, we the readers generally blame the writers for things that happen in comics (hence why I don’t really care for Grant Morrison, I inadvertently blame him for the whole Jean Grey is dead again thing) even when some part of us knows it’s the companies who have a hand in it as well.

After lunch, we walked around the displays and such. Yoss Mike had only one other person he wanted to see, Brian Azzarello, so we made sure to check his signing times. It was kinda weird ‘cuz when we went back to get in line, there was like no line at all. I thought this was nuts ‘cuz Brian Azzarello is a name in the comics industry, so why wouldn’t there have been a line?

On the bright side, we didn’t have to wait very long for Mike. He was content to do whatever else anyone wanted to do at the con; stand in line, browse comics, buy costumes, etc. VoW seemed to be the only other person who wanted to get stuff signed, but Gene Ha wasn’t going to be signing until 2:30 PM. We had quite some time to kill.

We went back through stuffs. Mike bought these geeky ID passes; they were pretty keen, I thought. He bought one for Al that read “Starfleet Academy Alumi”. His own two were one for S.H.I.E.L.D and Blue Sun. VoW ended up with some pins, and even Toni found a dragon. Several, in fact. But she only bought the one.

I freely admit to getting a bit tired as we kept walking around. It was eventually decided that while VoW stood in line for Gene Ha, the rest of us would sit down and get ice cream or something. I can’t say we stayed much longer thereafter either. When VoW rejoined us, we went back to Artists’ Alley for one last pass through, and then pretty much called it a day.

For the most part, I think folk had fun. Both Mike and VoW got autographs, Toni got a dragon, and I got a cool free poster of Buffy and Fray. I would have liked autographs too, but there’s always San Diego Con to try and get to one of these days.

Up next, an evening at Grant and Al’s new pad. See you in 30!

Here’s to Michael Turner

Published by
jessi
at June 28, 2008 in Arts and Entertainment. 0 Comments

I discovered some very sad news this morning when I went to check Comics Continuum, Michael Turner passed away Friday night.

I know for those of you who don’t speak this geek, this doesn’t mean a whole lot and might not know who he is, but Michael Turner was one of my favorite comic book artists. He was one of the first artists I ever really paid attention to and I made every effort to pick up his stuff regardless of if I really liked the writer. He was a popular cover artist for DC and Marvel and I always made it a point to buy his cover.

I was fortunate enough to see Michael Turner at Wizard Wold Chicago 2004, right around the time he was launching his own studio, Aspen Comics; and I had the privilege of having him autograph a few of my comics. In fact, I was so excited that he was there that I bought comics at the convention, even though I already had them at home. just so I could get his autograph.

The comics industry has lost a very talented man and in some way, comic art will never be the same to me.

I need a chef

Published by
jessi
at June 27, 2008 in Random Reading. 0 Comments

Watching through Gilmore Girls has brought to my attention the fact that I’m lacking something important in my life: a chef.

I totally need to make friends with a chef so she (or he even) can make awesome stuff like a dark chocolate s’mores cake.

Well that’s mildly annoying

Published by
jessi
at June 27, 2008 in Arts and Entertainment. 0 Comments

So most folk know I’m going to Wizard World Chicago again this year, and that the guest of honor is Warren Ellis. Unfortunately for me, I don’t really have a lot of Ellis stuff.

But I will.

I know I probably heard or read this somewhere else, but I just saw the Comics Continuum post about Marvel First Looks, and guess who’s taking over Astonishing X-Men…

Yeah, that’s right. Mr. Warren Ellis. And when does his first issue penning the comic debut?

July 2nd.

As in next week, as in AFTER Wizard World Chicago.

Rat bastards.

“Maybe people thought she was the father.”

Published by
jessi
at June 27, 2008 in Arts and Entertainment. 0 Comments

I heart Toni for inadvertently helping me with the title of this post.

SPOILER WARNING!!! — this post may contain spoilers for the movie Wanted

There had been talk of seeing Wanted at the midnight showing. I’d been really reluctant to go ‘cuz my memories of midnight showing usually included being around a lot of obnoxious teenagers, but today seemed to be the day where I lacked any kind of will power, so I caved and went along anyway.

Rich came and picked me up around 8:30 and we passed some time at the Settlement before the movie. Initially, it was just going to be Yoss Mike, Rich, and me, but we managed to persuade Toni into joining us. Bert was gonna come along as well, but backed out as we were about to leave for fear of falling asleep during the movie.

Purchasing tickets was mildly amusing in that the guy was like, “Are you a student?”

I wasn’t looking at him when he asked the question, so I told him I wasn’t. “Yeah, you’re a student. That’ll be $6.75.”

It turns out we all got in at the student rate. Mike thought perhaps it was because of the new policy the theaters implemented recently — the ticket people were probably catching a lot of crap for it and the two people working just didn’t want to deal with it.

I was surprised they actually carded at the door to the theater. Some part of me just sighed when the person who ripped my ticket told me to have my ID ready, but the ticket-ripper everyone else went to didn’t say as much. I thought it was because I looked fourteen, but no, they really were checking everyone’s ID. I can’t imagine they did much when they found someone “underage”, but good effort on the theater’s part.

The movie itself was not exactly what I expected. For me personally, I thought it would be something different, dare I say better than what I actually saw. To be fair, the movie had its moments, but there seemed to be a lot of the Matrix-y stuff that just seemed excessive at some points.

The Loom thing made me laugh a little inside. When Sloan explained the Loom, I couldn’t help but think of the Fates. I realize that that was probably the point, but it seemed out of place given the constructs of the movie, or perhaps the world I expected the movie to be in.

I liked that the movie was in Chicago.

One of the parts that pissed me off the most was the story Fox tells about her childhood. She explained that the killer in the story carves his initials into his victims, and then as she turns to leave, there is a slow shot of initial scars on her neck.

Seriously? They had to spell that out for people? When I griped about it afterwards, Toni said the title of this post.

There were just a lot of predictable moments for me. And I know that the same can be said in a lot of movies…I guess I just expected more out of this one. I couldn’t help but wonder if the voice over at the end was a kind of parody or homage to Spider-Man.

I was surprised to discover that Danny Elfman was the composer; I can usually tell right away just hearing the music, but it took the credit to point out that it was Elfman. ‘Twas quite unlike his usual stuff it seemed.

I liked the nod to the creators in the nameplate, although, I wonder if they spelled “Millar” incorrectly on purpose.

I like the fact that it’s affiliated with Top Cow. I generally enjoy Top Cow’s stuff.

But, at this particular moment in time, I have to say that this is the first movie that I was actually disappointed by this summer.

I do want to read the mini-series now, however.

Tuesday at the Settlement: More late night conversations

Published by
jessi
at June 25, 2008 in In Good Company. 2 Comments

It was Tuesday night, which meant that it was time to gather.

I persuaded Rich to come up from Lombard for hijinx, or rather, I bribed him with the offer of coffee. It’s only really been ten days since I’d seen him last, but when you’ve grown accustomed to seeing people more than that, it’s a bit odd when they’re not around.

As posted, I’ve also been keeping an eye on Lucy. Me Da was going to be running late or some such, so he asked me if I could stop by the house again to let her out and feed her. I was glad that Rich was willing to make a little detour.

After the Price house, we went to Dominick’s. We’d discussed dinner possibilities and for whatever reason, frozen pizza sounded incredibly appealing. It was true that I had already eaten with my family, since they eat at like 5:30 in the afternoon, but I knew I would be hungry later so I figured it would be best to come prepared.

Food purchases in hand, our next stop was Caribou Coffee. I was glad that Rich opted for that, too ‘cuz while Starbuck’s isn’t that bad, I more often than not prefer Caribou. Remember how heartbroken I was when the Mint Mochas went out of season in Japan? I never have to worry about that with Caribou because the Mint Condition is a staple at that establishment. Yeah for mint!

Again, I can’t help but laugh at the fact that when Rich and I are in the car, we end up talking about grammar and usage. This time around, I asked him his thoughts on “No sooner had so-and-so come home”…then what? Would he use “than”? For whatever reason I had been stuck on using “than”, but every time I had typed it out it just didn’t seem right. “No sooner had so-and-so come home than my friends had to leave.”

We decided that it was right that way, despite being a bit awkward. Rich also re-arranged to sentence to be “No sooner than so-and-so had come home that my friends had to leave.”

…

See? Now that I write these sentences again, I second guess myself. Anyway, that’s what we talked about on the way to the Settlement ‘cuz we’re big nerds.

Yoss Mike acquired more songs for Rock Band, so he and Bert were playing that while Toni played Warcraft III (is that the one?). They invited Rich to join in and I found that to be the perfect excuse to bust out Miho and play some more Link to the Past. (I’ve been pretty addicted to that ever since I stole it from me Da.)

VoW arrived after I’d died about two times; I took that as a sign to put Miho away. It was her birthday on Monday, so she showed me what her sisters had gotten her. I like the little voodoo mummy, but I couldn’t help but think the pocket watch from her elder “pig” Molly was really shiny! So fancy it was!

Grant and Al arrived and for the most part all games ceased while we gathered around the table to be social. I mean, we’re always social, but this was the kind of conversation social. Yoss Mike also gave VoW his birthday present to her: a set of twelve rainbow throwing knives. So pretty! Almost as good as a sword!

After some merriment, it was decided that we should probably start watching American Gladiators. While I still cringe every time there’s talking, I find that I enjoy it a bit more and more. Like everyone else, I’ve come to think Crush and Titan are awesome, with Wolf being just as keen.

We only watched one episode initially. There was another show that Mike recorded, thinking that perhaps we would enjoy it as much as AG. It was something called Wipeout. Personally, the show made me uncomfortable in the same way the talking on AG makes me uncomfortable; but other than that, folk seemed to enjoy the hilarity and dare I say, the absurdity of it all.

Amazingly, we got through all of AG, although during two of the episodes, a game of Oh Hell was being played. Heck, GrAl left around 11 PM, which hasn’t happened in quite a while. You know, now that me Da is all kinds of respectable and secret agent like. Bert was up to bed not long after GrAl’s departure, but Toni stayed with us for a spell.

Rich, Mike, Toni, and I ended up talking ’round the table. We talked about Hugh Laurie and his awesomeness. (He did not win a BAFTA, but he did win a Golden Globe — I totally thought he won more awards but I guess I was wrong.) We talked about how parents can psychologically mess with their kids and about the evils of Disney cartoons, although, I freely admit to liking most of ‘em.

We talked about lots of stuffs. And after Toni went up to bed, Rich, Mike, and I continued conversing. The two points of interest that stick out are the debate about honorifics such as referring to a PhD person as “Doctor” but not calling a person with a Master’s “Master” (and same for Bachelor’s); and smoking and drinking alcohol.

Rich and I didn’t leave the Settlement until about 4 AM. I haven’t stayed out till 4 AM in quite a long time, in fact, I think last night was the first time since returning home.

‘Twas quite a good night!

Ten miles, two days

Published by
jessi
at June 24, 2008 in Random Reading. 0 Comments

I think I walked ten miles in the past two days. Let me see…it’s 2.5 miles to me Da’s house since it’s in the same neighborhood as the Halfway House, and I went there and back yesterday and today to check on Lucy.

2.5 miles, twice a day, in two days is like ten miles right?

Cool.

Lucy is not as rambunctious as she was before, although I did get her to try and eat my pant leg, which she used to do when she was more puppyish, so that’s good. But for the most part, she’s pretty calm.

Not like Dixie! I dognapped Dixie yesterday so Lucy would have someone to play with, but I think Dixie had more fun than Lucy; Lucy kept doing the climb up on the stone bench thingy when I sat down at the patio set whilst Dixie rummaged in the freedom of the yard.

I think it’s supposed to rain tomorrow, but if it doesn’t, then it will be fifteen miles this week! How cool would that be? :-)

The BSG Season 4 marathon; Wii games

Published by
jessi
at June 22, 2008 in In Good Company and Arts and Entertainment. 0 Comments

I was sure to catch up on the first three episodes the morning of the marathon. It didn’t take me long at all, so I was up to speed when I arrived at the Settlement at the agreed upon time.

I got there but five minutes past 2, and this was with stopping by to pick up some more bars of awesome. I thought that if I wanted to have one, and there were only two or three left in the original box, and then Grant or Al wanted one there wouldn’t be enough for everyone. This way, those who chose to partake in bars of awesome could do so.

One bar of awesome later, Grant and Al arrived. After some food was made for peoples who lived there, it was off into to space for us.

We watched at least five episodes without stopping, made a dinner run, and then finished out the last two episodes of the season. ‘Twas quite the marathon! It’s kinda a good thing when you wait for several seasons to finish and then catch up ‘cuz then the ache of waiting isn’t as painful.

We discussed bits and pieces of information, conjectures and theories (or are those the exact same thing?), and gripes if any. I couldn’t help but laugh at the fact that the two episodes I thought had the greatest comedic moments were the two written by Jane Espenson.

I couldn’t help but wonder if I can really distinguish her writing in general, or if it’s just that she is very distinctive from the other writers on the show. I know that when she wrote a few episodes for Gilmore Girls they were no different than any other Gilmore Girls episode, but for whatever reason, I could really pick out the two BSG ones. I was reminded of the time Rob had me watch the teaser to an episode of The O.C. and pointed out that it had a very Espenson flourish to it.

Once our little marathon was finished, we went through our usual routine of figuring out what to do next. Strangely enough, we ended up playing a few games on the Wii. It’s been over a month since any of us have played Mario Kart Wii, the previous night’s Double Dare obstacle course not included. Bert and Toni also busted out Wario, which I haven’t played since February of 2007 when we went to Masumi’s apato for sukiyaki.

When Bert was on the Wii game screen, I couldn’t help but notice they had A Link to the Past. I once again lamented about how I really wanted to play that again, and me Da mentioned that he had it on Game Boy Advance.

Naturally, this meant that when we left the Settlement that night I had to go and get it; and it turned out our departure wasn’t too long after our fifth game of Wario.

It was an early night for us, but then again, it was a full day as well. ‘Twas all still good times.

The fencer and the rapier duelist

Published by
jessi
at June 21, 2008 in On Fighting. 1 Comment

The weapon in my hand is not mine, but she’s just like my Ruka — a Triplette epee. I cannot help but want to duel with Kris; it’s been a while since I’ve gotten a good match in.

We square off on his back patio and have acquired something of an audience. It always baffles me when that happens if anything because I’m not used to fencing with people watching.

It throws me off a little.

Our first few passes are what they usually are. Just light little kisses here and there.

After we dance a little, one of the spectators comments that I have better footwork than Kris. I think the fellow forgets the part where Kris has had at least two beers and a bellyfull of ravioli.

I land a solid hit on his torso.

Kris finally remembers the part where he fights rapier style. He decides to use the circle. Damn. I was hoping he’d forget the part where I default to sport fencing. Stupid linear training!

I’m frustrated with myself. Why is it I forget the circles every time I have a foil or a similarly designed weapon in my hand?

For whatever reason, I’m still thrown off balance by the circle. Kris takes advantage of my discombobulation and I retreat quickly, and for whatever reason, Kris backs down. I find it amusing that once a single-handed weapon is in my hand again, I fight honorably. All bets are off when it’s a two-handed weapon.

I reflect on these facts briefly.

I decide to use a different tactic in hopes of being more prepared should Kris try to press again. I extend the blade to its full length, remembering a technique taught to me by Doug Bishop in the early days of my fencing career. (I feel that I must also note it’s a technique that was used in Rurouni Kenshin.) The moment Kris’s tip passes the guard, beat or parry and go for the riposte.

I land a second good hit.

I don’t know what possesses me, but I decide to try the circle. It’s not overly effective and puts us back in our original positions for the most part. I’m just not confident using it when I know I’m fencing. Again, I curse my default.

Unfortunately for me, I become reckless, as I always do when fighting. I see an opening and don’t really think things through.

Well would you look at that; I’ve got a sword tip in my rib.

Rats.

On the bright side, I don’t think it’s that deep.

I start to feel a burning in my arm.

What the hell is THAT about? I shouldn’t be feeling tired! So very lame!

For whatever reason, I take a sabre fencer’s en garde, just to see how well it would work. It really doesn’t make a difference either way.

Kris calls it. I’m not overly upset by it in that I’m starting to feel a little tired. I hope for a rematch soon.

After Kris goes inside, I have the opportunity to talk with his friend, the fellow who claimed I had good footwork. Like Kris, he is stage combat-trained. He praises Kris’s small sword; it isn’t all the way balanced, but it’s still an incredibly sweet blade. We chat a bit about various bouts we’ve had, or in his case choreographed.

He said that what Kris and I did was a really good way to choreograph a duel. We also talked a little about the difference in a sport fencer and a rapier duelist.

Not for the first time, I wish I had more experience with the rapier duelist’s circle. I understand the principle of it, I just can’t commit to it. I could when I had a two-handed weapon in my hands, but much to my frustration, I can’t transfer that knowledge into single-hand.

As Miyomoto Musashi says, “This requires careful study, practice, and reflection.”