Dr. Memnus Lagbane Soultooth the Mad

I seem to have fallen behind on my Livejournal posting. It seems like I don't have a lot to blather about besides work, though, lately, which is really a shame.

My supply of strenuous physical activity these days seems to begin and end with trips to the climbing gym. On the one hand, this keeps my upper body strength in at least a passable state, and is somewhat more of a balanced (no pun intended) exercise than archery, it doesn't do much for the cardiovascular endurance. Finally getting into lead climbing may do a little for that; actually doing something silly like "getting a bike" would be much better.

Speaking of archery, I haven't been. Like, at all. I have a target in my driveway, and my bow strung in my closet, and will go out and shoot 30-50 arrows maybe once every other week. By the end of that, the skin on my fingertips is extremely unhappy. Competing is out of the question, I'd have a solid week of tuning and hardware fixes ahead of me if I wanted to, and new arrows probably wouldn't hurt either. But unless I figure out a better motivation for it, archery will remain a footnote.

I'm going to San Francisco for GDC next week! It's looking like I'll be able to get evenings free to do whatever, so if you're up for dinner or hanging out I'm absolutely interested. I'll be staying downtown and happy to hop a train to wherever. I'll be in town from Sunday morning to Saturday afternoon (slight change of plans from the original, on account of unexpected San Diego events). My schedule's open unless otherwise noted.

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Final packing score:

6 cardboard boxes
5 plastic bins
3 suitcases
3 backpack-like containers
2 milk crates
1 filing cabinet
1 bowcase
1 dance mat
6 pillows

Getting everything into the car is going to be a really tight squeeze. I've currently got the bins and bow in, which is probably about half the volume, but we'll see how space ends up. Only one of the boxes is something I'd be fine with shipping; two others might be tolerable to...

Hoping to be gone by 8, which in Salt Lake City in May is well before sunset. Unfortunately, my route is not quite correct to be riding off into it, as they say.

EDIT: No good. I'm three boxes over volume. Utah people, I've got three mostly-empty bottles of liquor (gin, tequila, triple sec) and a card good for a bunch of free/discounted auto maintenance for the first person who can give me a ride to the post office. Give me a call.

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Each one that emails me puts me one step closer to defining what I keep by what will fit in a car. I've done it before; don't think I won't do it again. What kind of marketing technique is it to promise up to 74% off some price that you won't disclose?

The 74% quote -- in bold -- has come from two different people, ostensibly from two different companies. The identical inventory list they sent betrays them though.

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Wow, where to start. I suppose there's only one reasonable place.

Katy and Cal are married. This is awesome.

Friday turned out to not be the airline day from hell after all. My trip was shaved by six hours when US Airways got me on a direct flight to Boston, once it became apparent that I would not make it to Portland in time to leave Portland. I was therefore in Boston in time for dinner - I and my gracious hosts met up with Conor and Nik(k)i to hunt for cheap food; it was, in fact, found. After much frantic phone dancing, Frances finally heard that I'd make it to Boston ahead of her, so Dan and I stayed up until we went out to the airport to get her.

Saturday, the picnic, as well as all that hanging out with people I haven't seen in far, far too long... I know I didn't gt the chance to catch anyone; I also know that I tend to squander such chances even when I do get them. But it was great to see everyone, and meet new people! This also comes with a major note-to-self to add the greater Boston area to the list of places that I should keep in mind for the future.

Sunday, a bit more (unstructured) hanging out, and the ceremony and reception. The ceremony was short and beautifully touching. The reception (and transition thereto) was well planned and orchestrated, unlike a certain previous wedding I attended, and just... fit. Guests seemed to be equally balanced between "friends" and "family", which is just as well, because within the former group there could be difficulties separating a bride's side from a groom's side. I imagine others will wax more eloquent, but the entire event couldn't have been better. That, and Benj makes an amazing MC.

(Etc.)

Today was the first day in recent memory that I managed to take a flight with everything going exactly as planned! The fact that this is noteworthy is somewhat distressing, but at this point I'll take what I can get. It is annoying, however, that one of my personal symptoms of sleep deprivation (I slept all of two hours last night) is mild nausea, and the landing in SLC was bumpier than usual. Now we actually have campaign for the first time this month, too. Weird.

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Tournament report: 2007 CAP Western Regional Championships
STAR FITA + individual ORs

I went into this tournament on two days of practice - that is not an exaggeration. New arrows, new form, both only tested outside the Sunday and Tuesday preceeding the competition. So I wasn't expecting much.

The first day, I began to realize I needed to set my standards a bit higher. A forty-point improvement at 90m from my old usual, to 241, was nothing compared to the shock of shooting a 298 at 70m - a score which would turn out to be the best in my division. Only 90 was leaving me 40 points behind.

The day was hot as hell, and as we tried to get ready for the team ORs a dust storm blew in, causing a declaration of "unsafe conditions" (ie targets falling over) and we were done for the day. The day after was a bit less hot, and a bit more humid, and the second-place shooter dropped out for heat exhaustion, leaving me in a very unfamiliar position: chasing a medal. I knocked in extremely solid showings at 50m and 30m - 292 and 329 respectively - for a total of 1160, I believe second place.

At this point it was getting extremely late, because the team ORs had been moved to Sunday morning and the actual scoring hadn't started until nearly 11. Individual ORs didn't start until 4... and dragged on and on, as they tried to line up a field of newbies on not enough targets... and my 7:30 flight loomed closer and closer. At the clock rolled past 5, the sun started to set, and suddenly I found myself at a serious disadvantage as a left-handed archer. The sun was dropping quickly in front of me and behind everyone else on the line. My scores started to show it, and though I never embarassed myself, I was knocked from my #4 seed in the semifinals. (I'll give you one guess as to by how many points. Weird.)

The time was then 6:10, and I decided to go for it. Giving my regrets to the TD, I headed for the car, changed my shirt, and booked it back to the airport. If I'd known the route a bit better I might have made it; as it was, my flight to SLC was closed with no open seats on later ones. The remaining option, other than the 7:15 flight the next morning (infeasible, given the 6 AM meeting I have) leads me to where I am now - a layover in Vegas, getting me home by, uh, 2:30 in theory. In fact, it's a "potential oversold situation" which would just be the icing on the cake. All this, just to get stuck in Vegas with only a laptop, a stretch band, and eight people counting on seeing me tomorrow.

To summarize: Take anything you'd devote two entire days to that would leave you no energy for anything else. Move 15% of that thing from day one to day two. Once all that's done, get only two hours of sleep before going back to work. That's how exhausted I'm going to be tomorrow... for now I'm still running on adrenaline fumes.

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Going off the radar for the weekend. If you'd like to get in touch with me before Sunday, feel free to do so out-of-band.

Especially if you're in Claremont.

Take on me, bitches!"

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The tags list on this is going to be huge, I can tell...

( Trips to Claremont, past and future )

( The fate of HAVEN )

( My pentannual computer upgrade )

( Gaming )

( Archer talk )

( Food )

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