Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Rolling, rolling

Life keeps chugging along. I've been doing quite a bit more training recently, which is good for me in a number of ways. Lauren, our head instructor, told us we needed to make some padded training weapons.

Carl and I picked up PVC pipe, two sizes of PVC insulation, and heavy duct tape from Home Depot. We were standing in front of the checkout counter when I turned to him.


You know...we should find a way to add weights, so these will balance like real swords.

We ended up using 6" lengths of 1/4" steel pipe and epoxy for additional weight and balance. The epoxy and steel made the project much longer, more complicated, and more than tripled the cost, but Carl and I were giggling like middle-schoolers most of the time.

The additional weight and balance shift really gives a more realistic feel to our padded long and short swords. The extra weight also means they can deliver a real smack, while the double insulation means the weight is distributed enough to not injure. And Carl and I had a ridiculously good time.

Friday, October 8, 2010

And in other news...

(This is a more adult blog than usual. Be warned.)

Americans evidently do not have enough healthy, fulfilling sex, and have too much time on their hands. This leads to a preoccupation with sex, and the latest evidence of this is the widespread fascination with slutty Karen Owen's "sex thesis" in which she rated the performance of 13 partners while she was pursuing her undergraduate degree at Duke University. If you have nothing better to do than fascinatedly read about some college athlete's penis size and how good he was or wasn't in the sack, you need to get a life.

Once again, we learn that if you behave badly on the internet, it's probably never going to go away. And that women are capable of even more objectification than men (there is no equivalent to some women's preoccupation with penis size: and I, to be extremely frank, have never heard men have the fixation with very tight genitalia that would be the closest direct equivalent, from a man's perspective- which can be taken care of through a few minutes' worth of exercise by a woman every other day, in any case). The things that some men focus on in women can be taken care of by exercise and surgery. Good luck with similar penis surgery.

So, in summary, if you have a happy, healthy, sex life, carry on. Keep doing what works. And if you're a pathetic individual who needs to vicariously live through others' lurid accounts, you need to change something.

HallowE09