Monday, December 15, 2003

Somewhat Epic

It feels strange coming back to OB now, having been away from the internet for only three days or so. It’s surreal stuff, but I hope I’ll be able to get back into the swing of things alright, heh. This a very long post, by the way. Solo’s Blog- Stardate: Friday. Well, the driving lesson went the way of most of the others I’ve taken so far- not actually getting worse, but hardly making any progress anywhere. I must have stalled at least six times. It’s still frustrating, and the more frustrated I get the worse the problem is, because I’m conscious of the fact that I’m frustrated about my driving not going as quickly as I’d like it to. Ah well. I tried downloading the Halo PC demo today, because I have no money to buy the game proper. I had only about 10 MB left to go using the Broadband connection and it went and disconnected itself. Much annoyance there, but after numerous restarts I realised that it was the line itself, not the computer that was going wrong. We tested the phone, to hear a rather odd crackling noise. The BT system for reporting faults over the phone is rather long, complicated and tiresome. I spent about five minutes on it, pressing buttons on the automated system to get a response and then book and appointment. It’d be so much easier to talk to a real person. I guess they don’t want to fork out the extra pay to get someone to man the call stations. Still, with that in mind I played on Half Life: Opposing Force instead, and got about half-way through when Lawrence called to say he was coming round with the Bouncers script. Unfortunately, it was pitch-black outside, raining and he missed my station. In the end I came out to try and find him in a fluorescent green/yellow jacket and a headtorch. He thought I was a road worker ^_^; Saturday, then. Saturday started off like any other day, albeit rather later than I would have liked. I don’t usually eat breakfast too soon after I get up anymore because it makes me feel sick, and today I woke up at nine. I had half an hour to get my stuff ready and leave for Training, so breakfast wasn’t really an option. A very bad idea, in hindsight. I gave Paul the bottle of Mead I’d bought for him for Christmas at the last trade fair and he seemed very happy with it ^_^ He said I was progressing really well with my footwork, too, which made me feel good. He said I was probably moving a lot better than a lot of the older people there, too. Like anything it still needs work, but at least it needs less work than it did. The session progressed pretty well- being Christmas, the school we practice in was festively decorated and had a stage set up at one end. It looked very nice, heh. I got to use Paul’s massive two-handed sword (that isn’t nearly as big as Chris’ gargantuan Flambard, but still impressive), as well as break in my new Falchion. Then came Andy, who almost broke that Falchion, and myself. He doesn’t pull blows as you should in reenactment, only while fighting him to start with I didn’t say anything because… I’m not sure why actually. It was in my mind to say, but it didn’t come out. I seemed to be blocking the blows fine with my sword and buckler, so it didn’t worry me too much. Until, that is, I missed. His own, rather battered Falchion came hurtling through the air in a downwards slice across my body. I moved myself backwards, but my left knee was still in the way. The metal blade collided with me, and I let out a rather modest scream for the amount of pain it suddenly caused me. Suddenly unable to stand, I ripped off my gauntlets and threw them along with my helmet onto the stage. I sat down, Andy next to me looking (and sounding) incredibly apologetic. I rubbed my knee for a bit, then Derren appeared, asking if I felt sick at all. I said no, but as soon as I did, everything around me began to swirl slightly, and my stomach contracted. I then said that yes, I was feeling sick, and that no, it didn’t hurt when Derren pressed on various areas of the knee, and that no, it didn’t feel broken. He ran off to get some water while I started feeling progressively worse. He came back and pressed a wet paper towel against my knee. As I watched, everything started fading underneath what I can only describe as a sparkly-beige curtain. My hearing became muffled as well, and it was only that evening that I realised I was on the verge of passing out from shock. Derren kept talking to me though, and eventually I could see and hear properly again, although walking was rather difficult. I really like Derren ^_^ he’s been through a lot of these sorts of injuries himself and knows exactly how to handle them. I really appreciated it, heh. The rest of the day I spent sitting down, either watching films or reading books, all the time with a large ice pack sitting on my knee. The bruise isn’t big at all, but it’s still hard to walk anywhere without feeling pain. Trying to sleep was the worst thing. Every five minutes I was having to turn over because it became too sore to leave in the same position. I hope that’s the worst injury I get from reenactment ^_^; The blow itself wasn’t too bad- just coupled with the fact that I have low blood pressure anyway, the sword hit a nerve, and I had no breakfast that morning. Never again will I not eat before a training session. Sunday After aforementioned painful night’s sleep (or not sleep, as it was), I watched Yu-Gi-Oh and have done little, save re-organise my folder for inspection and complete the missing dates in my course diary. Learning this monologue from Ivanov is easier said than done. The progression is more logical than The Children (thank God), but there’s just rather a lot of it, and I’ve not actually looked at it since I first read it four weeks ago. Still, I tend to work best under pressure anyway, so it should be alright. That’s pretty much all I’ve been doing of late, heh. My Improvisation assignment went much better than I’d expected- I hadn’t intended on playing an addict of some sort at all, but the character just latched itself to me as soon as I got into the scene. And John said it was the best thing he’d seen me do anyway, so it must have been good ^_^ Unless, of course, everything else I’ve done has not been good. But I don’t think that’s true. At least, I hope it isn’t. Today, finally So, today I woke up (twenty-five minutes late) after some very odd and disturbing dreams, ready to go and perform my Classical monologue. I didn’t do very well. I don’t think anyone did really. Less than half of the class showed up anyway, and all but three who did needed prompting anyway (myself included). But it wasn’t a real assessed assessment in the end, more like a general progress report. I’m seeing Peter Pan tomorrow, a pantomime performance in Woking. Initially, the main reason was because Lawrence was going, but I realised later that it’d be good to get ideas on how to make my Gryphon ‘bigger’ as a character- something I still need to work on. Writer’s Update I’ve changed the next chapter of Enter the Net to have a Christmas feel to it- the intended storyline for Chapter 4 will now be later in the series, heh. I know what I have to do for DC, but I just can’t write it yet. For the moment, they’re both on temporary hiatus until I can get into the right frame of mind to get them going again. I want ETN done before Christmas though, else there’ll be no point in making it a Christmas Special, heh. So in all, there we go ^_^ Sorry I’m late.

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