Thursday, December 2, 2004

   Awesome.
This week has come to a nice, slow, easy finish. What started out as me totally freaking out over my English paper is ending tomorrow. I have an hour of Off to do my homework in, and I have Theology last period. There is no way that this can end foully.

Well...wait. Crap. I need to write a thesis for my next paper. Mr. Lamoureux is actually giving us some freedom on this assignment, though, which is unusual. We can write about anything that has to do with Romanticism. Critique a work by a Romantic author, discuss the other himself or herself, etc. Whatever we want. I'm thinking of doing something about the originality of Poe's works, for lack of any other ideas. Poe, I think, would be better able to grasp my attention than anything else in the subject range. Other Romantic authors I've read tend to have ideologies and correlations that I simply don't see. I can understand Poe's stuff, for the most part, and it's interesting. ^_^

That'll probably be the one tidbit of homework I complete tonight. =p

Fencing practice went well tonight. People were actually stretching when I got there at about five minutes after six o'clock. That's much better, compared to last time, where I came in at about six fifteen, and we didn't start stretching until a couple minutes after I got there.

We did the usual warm-up drills: Advancing and retreating across the room, suicides, generic sprints, etc.

Then we did a bunch of crunches, to get our torsos thoroughly worked out. Besides our legs, we use our torso more than anything else in fencing.

After that, the novices went with Coach Liz, and the JV and Varsity went with Coach Hughes. We did some more "simple" drills this evening. The first one went sort of as follows:

Fencer A extends their arm for a low-line attack on Fencer B.

Fencer B parries low, and then moves to counterattack.

Fencer A parries the attempted counterattack.

Fencer B brings their weapon around Fencer A's blade in a disengage, and scores a touch.

The next drill was pretty basic. It was a beat-attack, but on a lower level. In other words, we would smack the opponent's blade out of the way, and then attack around their stomach area, as opposed to their chest.

Then we did that drill, with movement. We would advance and retreat, sort of like a real bout, and then go for the low line beat-attack.

Thirdly, we did a fleche drill. In fencing, a fleche is a sort of charge at your opponent. You put all of your weight forward, and pin them as you run past. Sort of like medieval jousting, without the horses. And, you don't both have to charge.....

It was fun. ^_^

After the fleche drills we did one-touch bouts. Out of my eleven bouts, I won six and lost five. A couple of the losses were unavoidable, but the others were done by just stupid mistakes.

Sort of like headbutting Angela B. in the stomach. >> *cough*

I need new shoes for fencing. The ones I have right now are very dusty and slippery and...yeah. Very little friction. I slide easily. And when I try to lunge low, and I slide, and I'm close.....people get headbutted in the stomach. >.<;;

Well....only one person so far. >.>

Anyways...

After that I fenced my coach for a sort of undefined match. I got the first point, and he decided that we'd got beyond a one-touch bout. =p

So, we go back and forth for a minute, and he gets a touch on me. No big deal. Happens often enough. He has many more years of experience than me. No problem.

Next touch wins. >:D

I just happen to get the next touch, and win. ^-^

'Twas fun. I remember now why I love fencing. Actual bouts are so very exciting, especially against somebody you don't know.

Our Men's team had a 12-0 season last year, and the Women's team had 11-1. And that one was sort of unfair, because one of our fencers was suspended and all of her matches were counted as victories for the other team. There wasn't really any way they could have won under those conditions.

Here's hoping for another great season. ^_^ *raises glass water bottle*
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