And the Camera Gets Cleaned Out Again

River otter. Incredibly cute but definitely in the DO NOT PET category. I've seen their skulls and they have some serious teeth like all mustelids (weasels, skunks, wolverines).

Simulated FITA indoor using an NFAA target face. NFAA indoor round is 5 arrows per end while FITA indoor is 3 arrows per end on a colorful target.

If I can keep up groups like this or better consistently at Southeastern Sectional, I'll be pretty darned happy!

Cellos Can Be Fun

For many years, I just didn't like the cello. I don't know why I wasn't a particularly big fan of cellos. I think it had a lot to do with those dreadful recitals I had to perform in and sit through as a young pup. Then I started listening to Apocalyptica and suddenly I realized what awesome things can be done with cellos. I don't ever see myself playing a cello but now I can enjoy it as an instrument instead of seeing it as a torture device that's in the same category as soap operas, lite rock, or bad seminars.

Seemann -- featuring Nina Hagen.
Ohne Dich -- with Rammstein.

I survived Christmas in one piece, albeit with a lot of extra adipose tissue that will need to be systematically burned off and muscle re-built from prolonged inactivity. Since when was 50 yards too far to walk?!

First 5k Ever

No post-race or during-race photos but I ran my first ever 5k on the Gainesville-Hawthorne trail this morning. I started off very slowly, partially to reduce my odds of being run over, partially to just make sure I have enough energy to make it there and back again and then the final mile was where I sped up. I actually passed up a lot of people who had passed me up either early- or mid- run during that final mile and sprinted past a guy who had been way ahead of me through most of the run. It was really awesome and the weather was perfect for it! Definitely will do another one as the opportunity shows up and we'll see how far I can bring my time down as I keep training! I actually came out of the run not feeling tired at all so I knew I didn't over-do it at all and probably could've gone faster but I'd rather play it safe than sorry. Now I have a better idea of how to pace myself!

Definitely NOT a Fit

This bow does NOT fit me at all. I love the mass weight and the smoothness but the angle of the string and the position of the sight do not work for me without putting my head in a slightly awkward position. Theoretically the tip of my nose is supposed to be touching the string and there should be another contact point by the corner of my mouth, but I don't see THAT happening very comfortably. The side of my nose has given me much better results. Nonetheless, it's a really cool bow that feels more like a 20 lb bow instead of a 36 lb bow. It belongs to the assistant coach at Newberry, who's an insanely tall skinny guy whose facial features are a little better suited for that style of shooting. I'd love to be that tall with a 33.5" draw length! Aside from the awkward head position and the longbow-style grip I use on just about any bow, though most of my form is pretty good for an Olympic recurve. I don't like the anchoring under the chin too much but I think that can change... if anyone can ever pry the longbow out of my hand long enough for me to stay with a recurve! If I were ever to get an Olympic recurve, it would be a 64" or a 66" (what most people my size seem to favor) instead of a 72" like the one I was playing with.

Every Now and Then...

... I seem to know what I'm doing! This was 18 meters with the walnut longbow on the FITA 3-spot indoor target. I usually shoot the 40 cm target but I felt like challenging myself with just the 5 inner rings. This was earlier this week but the date thing on my camera decided to fart at me for whatever reason.

Heart-Shattered Doe

I took her from about 70 yards while we were preparing to exit. R had seen a doe cross the road and stopped the truck. A second doe ran out and was too fast for me to take a shot at. I then set the rifle down on the car door to use it as a rest and while I was waiting, a third doe popped up. I didn't fully settle into my shot but I took the shot anyway. She took a few steps forward then did a 180 turn so R and I weren't so sure that I actually hit her until we drove up to the spot. Sure enough, lots of blood-spatters so we knew I got her. Twenty yards and plenty of blood and a coughed-up chunk of lung later, we found her.



Also on a random side-note, here's how NOT to do combat archery...

FITA Field 2010

As always, click the title for the rest of the pictures.

Overall I shot very well given the following conditions:
1) It was cold. Eiskalt. Ok so not that cold for me but I think my bow had a few things to say. Can you say... calibration drift?
2) Indigestion from something in the sandwiches for lunch on day 1.

It was awesome shooting with friends, both new and old, and seeing that there were a total of 6 barebow archers... one of whom was a true longbow archer with wooden arrows and another was a string-walker (but he wants to switch over to longbow) and is still a fun guy to hang out with. I don't think I've ever seen an FAA shoot with that strong of a barebow presence with more than half of us under 60 years old!

Lucky Lizard

After enduring what could only be described as either "Death by Boredom" or "Death by Overeating", I shot the field/hunter round at Gator Bowmen today and shot a pretty good score for myself -- 308/560. I don't think I've broken 300 in the presence of both human company and a score card yet, so today's shoot went very well. I even had competition for once and it was very, very close -- he got me by 15 points and it was just the perfect day to be out in the woods.

In other news, I stumbled across a rather entertaining music clip (click either here or the title. You'll know about 2 minutes in! I don't know what it is about "Miststück" that cracks me up so much aside from it literally translating to "Crap Piece".

Random Camera Clean-Out

Yes, I probably should've cleaned the mirror a bit before doing this, but gimme a break, my toilet, bath tub, and sink basin are clean! The 20 lb weight doesn't feel very heavy anymore.

Pictures from the Outdoors

Possums are funny... this little fellow hung out by my stand for nearly half an hour and was pretty oblivious to me even though I started sneezing and accidentally flashed it with my camera. It just looked up, sniffed, and went back to looking for tasty bugs and worms.

Cute but annoying visitor to my tree-stand...

A tree core taken with the increment borer by one of my forest ecology students. It smells good!

Sarracenia (of some sort)! Or in plain English, pitcher plants! I never thought I'd see them here in Florida but there they were at Austin Cary Memorial Forest! I really like carnivorous plants in general -- they are so much cooler than many other plants even if some are passive! I like plants that kill bugs!

FAA Target 2010

For the full suite of pictures, click on the title or here. The weather was truly gorgeous and I loved the slight morning chill that heralds the arrival of fall. The humidity was reasonable and everything was good aside from a bit of a brutal wind that liked to knock down arrows during the Classic 600 round. Overall I was pleased with my new aiming system, which involves both the use of the arrow shaft and the red elm stripe on my riser. There was a lot of correction in my left-right error but I still have a lot of work on my up-down plane. Nonetheless, I enjoyed having some nice tight groups, even if a lot of them were in the wrong place. I think the pictures below explain a lot of the story too.

Random Additions to my Workout Mix

I seem to have a way of stumbling across stuff that makes a lot of people around me cringe in terror. Anyway, I found some really good music to add to my list of songs for when I do my cardio, mostly in the form of a band called Oomph!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3lndvRhS_M (Labyrinth)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yw63SXgm3_4 (Die letzte Streichholz)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLJhmnI5Ez0 (Sandmann)

Some of the songs were a little too scary/disturbing to post I have to admit but make for excellent music to keep a good rhythm in my running or rowing.

First Bow-Killed Hog

I took this hog with my Fred Bear Lights-Out compound yesterday (Saturday) morning at 0830 hrs. He was accompanied by a second hog with similar coloration but significantly larger. After hearing stories about arrows bouncing off the shield that forms in the shoulder area on hogs, I decided to shoot the little one. I was pretty sure he was 70ish lbs when I decided to shoot him. Sure enough, he came into place first and I released my shot. I had already gotten a little wired up when I spotted a red fox an hour earlier but this time when I saw moving objects, I was a lot better prepared. Anyway, I see my arrow strike right behind the leg about what looks like 1/3 way up. He predictably runs and his buddy runs the other way. I wait until I'm steady enough to come down the ladder before I start blood-trailing. I probably blood-trail about 40-50 yards before realizing two things. 1) It's dangerous blood-trailing a hog solo, especially when one of the hogs looks pretty darned big and has visible tusks. 2) The trail starts getting a little spotty and goes into some really nasty, dense stuff. I wait for R to come down to help me trail this guy. My arrow did completely pass through, by the way, and smelled vaguely of gut but I wasn't sure because the larger hog with tusks did have a bit of an odor to him. Anyway, we find my hog not too far from where I stopped. That's when I realize two things. 1) He's A LOT bigger than I thought and 2) I did ever so slightly brush his guts but most of the damage (we found out when we cleaned him) was in the liver and lungs. So yes, that's my first bow-killed hog and I made about as clean of a kill as I could. Another 1/2 inch forward would've completely avoided the guts, but now I know to aim a slight bit more forward on a hog! I'm sure glad I didn't shoot the big hog -- now that I know that this one I got was 100+ lbs, I think the other one must've been 200+ and a real nightmare to carry back, not to mention the possibility of arrows not penetrating through that shield and just wounding or making him mad!

Some Stress Relief

I don't know why I'm getting so much of a laugh out of this, but I certainly get a good kick out of this little instrumental here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssyUDs0mGFk. Be forewarned about something that happens around 1:45ish in the clip. There's just something about the German language that appeals to me on so many different levels, especially when stress levels start creeping up.

In other news, the radial basis artificial neural network is beating the living daylights out of the feed-forward back-propagation and Bayesian regularization flavors as far as carbon flux estimates go. I still think that the Bayesian regularization should be doing a lot better but I have a reason to suspect something funky in the normalization or the reverse-normalization algorithm. I think I prefer the committee tree still but I can see the power behind an artificial neural network.

Hunting Setup 2010

Shooting my Fred Bear Lights Out, set at about 48 lbs with 28" 2016 and 85 grain tips. This is my 3rd season with this bow and it's been a proven deer-killer, provided something legal actually comes within range.

FAA FITA 2010

Shot pretty well on Day 1. Shot VERY badly on Day 2. Need to figure out a way of being able to shoot at full potential even in the midst of pain resulting from certain physiological functions. I have enough variation and noise with my eddy covariance data. I really don't need it in my performance or my mood. At least I survived the 2 day shoot but I think I may need to get some serious iron supplements to keep from getting anemic.

TBoF Summer 2010

Click on the title for the full suite of pictures.

I don't know exactly where I placed in the three different divisions but my best guess is 4th in traditional, 4th in longbow, and 4th or 5th in primitive. I know I placed 3rd in overall total though for the women. I survived the trifecta, which included crazy high humidity and hordes of bugs just waiting in line to munch on me despite my heavy armor of DEET and permetherin. I even had a sapling wanting to get very frisky with me and another tree wanting to give me a rectal exam if I wanted a clear shot and avoid the risk of hitting my limb against a tree branch. I'm just glad that my core is a lot stronger than it was back in January or I don't think I would've survived some of those shots!

Chek-Mate Fun

This was 30 yards un-timed during the IKAC round. Aside from one stray arrow, I did extremely well, finishing that round with a 27/30. My timed rounds were a little anemic, but I was extremely pleased with all of my un-timed rounds this time around. I shot this group with the Chek-Mate Crusader T/D longbow, by the way.

I shot an indoor round with the Chek-Mate Hunter 1 recurve recently and finished with a score of 250/300 with 7/60 X. My last best was in the low 220s with the walnut longbow that Robert built me. Aside from 2 stray shots during initial calibration, my grouping was quite impressive with the little shorty. I still prefer longbows but I can't completely discount the little take-down as a very solid target bow.

small Surprise in the Mail

I checked my snail mail and lo and behold! This showed up from when I did the NFAA SE Sectional Field event back in May. Never expected this one to pop up either.

Still Alive!

I shot my first IKAC in a while and shot extremely well for someone who has been sick for nearly two weeks, stressed out, and short on sleep because of the stress and sickness. I shot a 236 (Royal Round of 91) and had a really, really nice group during the 20 yard timed round (30 seconds). First two shots were a little low but the rest fell into place perfectly.


And now... finish drinking my kefir, let my hair dry, and call it for the night so I can get a desperately-needed full-blown workout.

Cute Snake

This little fellow was just hanging out by the rental office in my apartment complex. I'm guessing he was about a meter plus change long and pretty laid-back despite me staring at him and taking pictures. There's just something really cute about these little snakes around here.