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Posted on 05/03/2008 8:48:06 AM PDT by HairOfTheDog
Welcome to The Hobbit Hole!
Sing hey! for the bath at close of day
That washes the weary mud away!
A loon is he that will not sing:
O! Water Hot is anoble thing!
O! Sweet is the sound of falling rain.
and the brook that leaps from hill to plain;
but better than rain or rippling streams
is Water Hot that smokes and steams.
O! Water cold we may pour at need
down a thirsty throat and be glad indeed;
but better is Beer, if drink we lack,
and Water Hot poured down the back.
O! Water is fair that leaps on high
in a fountain white beneath the sky;
but never did fountain sound so sweet
as splashing Hot Water with my feet!
Fascinating stuff, particularly the refutation of the various myths. And yes, pretty pictures! From a sheer aesthetics standpoint, I like the longswords best.
You should start a blog on all this!
Ack!
Isn’t “Change” a bad thing??
more animals
You know at this point if Barack doesn’t name Elvis as his running mate, any announcement he can make is going to be a big collective *yawn*.
Heh. Since there are few in government with ~lesser~ qualifications than Obama, at pretty much every level, the hard part for him will be finding someone who doesn’t outclass him.
YesohyesohyesohyeS!
~sip~
How about Cookie Monster?
Very well displayed and quite interesting. Well, I think you have picked up a following so let’s hope that SwordPron (TM) becomes a regular feature of the HobbitHole.
Curious to know, how much protective gear aka safety gear, if any, do you all use during your training sessions or matches? I’ve seen the mesh masks and padded jump suits and gloves on the fencing team back at Mizzou but they were using foils, I think. One of the team lived on my floor, I doubt the ‘mgnt’ of the dorms would let the team have their swords and stuff in their rooms now days.
Come to think of it, I never once saw them practice on banquet tables, castle steps or swing from a tapestry. :-)
Okay, I know some lore one of those spears. The top one is the iklwa, the Zulu one hand stabbing spear. Check out the movie Zulu, Zulu Dawn or Shaka Zulu. Good close ups of the spears in ‘action’ so to speak, especially Shaka Zulu. The soft iron in the long blades tended to bend on the heavy tunics of Her Majesty’s Soldiers so they adapted and went to a shorter thicker blade. Still the same basic tactic, engage on the shield, manuveur to hook it and stab around to the unprotected side.
It is my understanding that in Britain and possibly elsewhere in Europe they have societies which reenact Gladiatorial combat, including many of their varied armentations(?), including Net and Trident, Gallic Sword, twin daggers, the steel and leather strap 'boxing' glove, and of course the 'Samnite', fighting with the Gladius.
By the way this is Lord of the Rings weekend on TNT, the Fellowship of the Rings is on, and Gandalf just took a fall. I'll give all your regards to Galadriel, if you like.
Aw...
Things are going well here today, with the kitten taming project. Sister might become a good pet yet... Brother still isn't sure. I posted update and video even, here:
Cat Chat! Surprise! Feral barn kittens! - Page 20 - Horse Forums (HGS)
I just took some new pictures, I'll post them if they turn out to be any good.
Heh...Brother just isn’t interested is he? But the Sister looks like she could be a people cat.
Brother’s not sure. But he’s at least as good a pet now as Josie is. :~) I don’t have to wear gloves anymore, most of the time, anyway.
So there’s that.
Umm...err...
Talk about damning with faint praise!
It’s all in perspective. :~)
For low-force drills we don't use any gear. For sparring we use a "3-weapon rated" fencing mask and a cup, at a minimum. Some wear padded gauntlet gloves. I have a pair but I'm not crazy about them. Some people wear elbow/knee pads.
The gear is the subject of no small amount of experimentation. It's not like you can go to the sporting goods store and buy medieval fencing gear. There are some guys in the national group that make and sell specialized gear like full-head hard plastic helmets with a face grill that's better than a fencing mask because it better protects the back of the head. Might look into that.
What looks better than padded gauntlets are motocross gloves. There was a guy that used those and they offer better finger sensitivity and still have a hard plastic shell over the knuckles, which is nice. But I didn't wear any gloves when I sparred... just the mask. As it turned out it wasn't my hands that got hit anyway. It was everything else. :-) When we spar we do use controlled full speed and intent ~except~ for the kill. When we get the chance to take the kill strike we're taught to pull it just at the last moment. It can be an attention-getting thump but not so hard as to break a bone. One of those wooden swords or a steel blunt can easily snap even the larger bones. But we just tend to get nice bruises. Part of the training is to keep your sparring at the level of control that you've managed to develop. Don't get out of control. Ratchet up the intensity according to what you're able to properly execute. Know where your tip is and know where it is about to be.
Of course, there's a certain amount of trust you have to have in your sparring partner and have him develop in you.
Obviously, there'll always be some sacrifice of realism for the sake of safety. A real fight to the death with sharp swords would have a special intensity that it's simply not possible to fully duplicate in practice. Just like any combat training. But you can get close enough to be useful and insightful enough to know what to do and have confidence when that day comes. Though, it's kinda unlikely in my case.
Aw...just watched the video. The little tortie sure is cute. “Pet me. Pet ME. Pet ME!!”
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