Trophy From 2007 Dec 29

This came from the second deer I killed. My boyfriend had given it to a neighbor of his who specialized in preserving various animal parts and turning them into works of art and other useful items. If I can get myself a buck, I think I may have his whole head taxidermied, but more likely than not, I'll just keep the antlers as a trophy.


Here's various random pictures some groups I've been getting with Sparrowhawk of late:

I Didn't Do These

A friend of mine did these shots with his Howard Hill-style longbow. I think the bow infused him with the spirit of Howard Hill every now and then. Sometimes though, it also infused him with the spirit of his obscure cousin, Down Hill. I tried to emulate the neuter shot on the hyena, but apparently it was a tad closer than I thought it was!

Not Shabby for 30 Yards Exhausted...

If I can do this or better at 40 yards consistently, I'd be ecstatic but heck, this is pretty darned good for 30 yards! I did get some new shafts recently -- Gold Tip Traditional 3555 with 145 grain points and 5" shield-cut fletching. They do spine a tad weak for Sparrowhawk, but for shooting IKAC and Royal Rounds, I prefer to spine my arrows a bit weaker than I would for 3D/Hunting because it's a whole lot easier to adjust for a weak spine early when I'm still feeling energetic than adjusting for a strong spine when I'm tired. These would spine ever so slightly weak for Tehanu when I'm fresh but they'd become a bit stiff pretty early in the IKAC / Royal Rounds.

Tractor Fun and Dunheasa Series FAQ 4/n

Click on the title for some amusing pictures for fun :)

Who knows how many more installments of FAQs I'm going to be doing... Might as well be doing this while my stomach is rebelling against me yet again and my brain has also decided to go on strike.

Q: What's with the fascination with para-ketones?
A: Well... there was a bit of an inside joke between me and a friend about parakeets and organic synthesis. It kinda started because my neighbor/landlord in S. Pasadena had this really neurotic little conure (the parrot equivalent of a Pomeranian with the small stature and disproportionately loud and shrill calls) who seemed to be a lot nicer to females than males. Around the same time, my friend and I were also taking organic chemistry and we were going through tons and tons of nomenclature stuff. This included phenolic groups and how to refer to the various configurations a pair of constituents can be named -- ortho-, meta-, and para-. Long story short, it just sounded really, really funny to think about para-ketones.

Q: Will there ever be anymore Geekster concerts now that the three of them have embraced their Tuatha roots?
A: No clue. Maybe, maybe not.

Q: Are there going to be more potty jokes in future installments?
A: Most likely. Especially if Killer Parakeet returns and/or if I decide to focus on Dr. Castro and Dr. Pichardo.

Q: Will we ever find out more about Captain Greywolf?
A: Maybe, maybe not. After all, her adventures are still continuing as I type.

Fixture

I seem to have become the FGSO (Forestry Grad Student Organization) fixture. I really need to get out of the habit of being Frodo Baggins because there's just too many One Rings that need to be dumped into Mount Doom. I should be more like Ged/Sparrowhawk, well, at least pre-The Farthest Shore. Ok, so being treasurer of FGSO probably doesn't hurt as much as losing all of my powers to keep Cob of Havnor from destroying the balance with his use of Pelnish Lore to open the door between life and death and stay in a quasi-immortal state.

Here's the old crew that's left me of all people to continue the mischief started by the president who somehow pulled me into FGSO in the first place...

Viaje al Sur

A few of my pictures from Kissimmee and Orlando survived -- our main destination was Medieval Times in Kissimmee, FL but we made a handful of stops, including Bass Pro, the Ripley's Believe it or Not Museum in Orlando, and generally wandering around.

Cleaning Out the Camera Again

Now if I could shoot that well with my compound at 20 yards and if I hit about 2 inches lower with Sorondil-Telcontar!

That's one lucky deer!

Haven't Done This in a While

It's been ages since I last did a full 300 round. I finally got my draw weight checked and apparently I took off a lot more weight than I thought. I thought I took out about 4-5 lbs but turned out I took out 8 lbs. Apparently 2.5 turns = 10 lbs so go figure, although I have to admit, 60+ shots with a back-tension release does get pretty tiring! For me, 50 lbs with a caliper release feels a whole lot better than 42 lbs with a back-tension release, but I do like my wrist and I am looking into a release that fits my hand a lot better. I'm trying experiments on myself again, hence my quasi-return to the back-tension release. Let's see what comes of it. For someone rusty though, 285/300 with 25/60 in the X and 1 that completely missed the target (I blame the cell phone for that one) isn't too shabby when my best score was something like 290/300 with 33/60 in the X and no misses.

Ricochet and FAQ 3/n

Somebody's arrow ricocheted. Can you find it?

Interesting place for a carbon arrow to break...

And on to the FAQ 3/n
Q: What will be the next class that'll inspire more stories in this series?
A: No clue. Maybe Ecosystems of Florida or forest mensuration or one of the various simulations or statistics classes I've taken.

Q: What's up with that "Mierda Santa" chapter?
A: Possible foreshadowing of things that may yet be or another "scenery" chapter. I haven't fully decided yet. I just thought showing some of Captain Greywolf's eating preferences was amusing.

Q: What are some of the inside jokes in the story?
A: Far too many of them to list. Ivan himself is a bit of an inside joke among my friends because he was based on a combination of the now defunct Moldovan boy-band, O-Zone, and the various critters I've run into over the years in the Caltech Ballroom Dance Club. I do poke a bit of fun at myself with my eating habits (mostly ones my friends call out) and the kind of characters I have a tendency to hang out with. There's also a few professors I do make fun of throughout the series, including my research adviser over the years and the various denizens of the biology and chemistry departments at Caltech.

Q: Why did the Crossroads get so muddy in the end?
A: Tarathorn cast a water spell in self-defense to get an enraged Vincent (in tiger form) away from her and she conjured a lot more water than she realized.

Q: What powers does someone have over another if they knew their target's True Name?
A: Depends on the situation. A Tuatha or other highly powerful being with either serious magical training (like Galka or Ivan) or innate skill (like Tarathorn) or both (like Iliiryana) with that knowledge can do quite a bit of stuff, mostly nasty things. Most creatures just see the True Name as another name and unlike in Ursula LeGuin's Earthsea series, most people aren't too secretive about their True Names. The probability of something awful happening by revealing one's True Name is generally next to nil. Of course, things may change with someone like Iliiryana on the loose...

Q: Is Vincent's transformation and the subsequent stuff that occurs afterwards any indication of potential situations?
A: I take the Fifth there.

Crunch!!

A bit of compound fun from today... Suffice to say, I might have to start stocking back up on arrows again!