Crooked Camera

I probably should've fixed the tripod first but I thought it would be fun to see what I looked like while doing barbell rows without the benefit of a mirror or a spotter or floor instructor to correct my form. I typically do about 45-55 lbs total on a barbell row, but if I have a good spotter of some sort and I'm feeling ambitious, I'll go a little more.

First Kill of the 2011-2012 Season

I took her Thanksgiving morning at about 0720 hrs. She had shown up twice before that morning but never really had a clear shot at her on the first two showings, plus I had my doubts about whether she was a doe or a spike or button, so I waited... and waited. Then she showed up in a grassy lane in front of my tree-stand and stopped to eat the mushrooms there (if you ask me, they're some pretty gross-looking brownish mushrooms that have seen better days, but I *hate* mushrooms myself). No nubs, no antlers, she appeared to be of a decent size, especially compared to the other doe that showed up and tried to share the mushrooms with her. She drove the little one off and went broadside. And then... boom!

Blood-trailing her was pretty difficult because I shot her in the heart, and without a functional heart, well, blood tends not to get pumped around, so she wasn't gushing blood everywhere like a double-lung shot would've. She made it maybe 35-40 meters before dropping dead and I got a bit nervous when Robert saw some meaty-looking stuff on the ground. Turned out the meaty-looking stuff was bits of heart tissue and not skeletal muscle. She's by no means the biggest doe I've shot and she's certainly a youngster, but I figured she was a shooter given that the little doe that came up to her got driven off, she seemed to be of a good size, and well, this season has just been outright brutal with all the bears showing up. So yeah, no fawns were orphaned in the process and I now have some nice, healthy protein in my freezer!

Pic from 2011-Oct-30

I just got this picture from one of my fellow archers, a brave traditional archer with wooden arrows and a 20 lb @ 24" recurve, at the October 30, 2011 Field/Hunter round at Gator Bowmen.

One of the Best Exercises...

It's hard to beat the burpee in its overall bang for the buck. Besides the squat and push-up, this one is one of the most awesome equipment-free exercises to do. Just don't do it on a full stomach. I really love burpees!

Coming to think of it, my top five favorite exercises are as follows:
#1 -- Squat
#2 -- Burpee
#3 -- Push-up
#4 -- Dead-lift
#5 -- Kettle-bell overhead swing

Honorable mentions in no particular order: clean and jerk, snatch, bench press (incline, decline, flat), Arnold press, bicep curl, flys, salamander (aka seal crawl), push-press.

If I Ever Wanted to Convert any of my Stories into a Musical...

... I think I'd love to have these guys come up with the music because I really love how well they blend elements of classical, rock, and metal with fantasy themes.

I just heard this song today and it's already stuck in my head. Both the song and the imagery are just really catchy for me so I've decided to inflict it on others. Recognize any fairy tales or other children's stories in this?


I gotta admit, this song has influenced a few of my characters' quirks in the current story arc. Then again, my musical preferences and writing are correlated, although there's not necessarily any type of causation.

Speaking of stories, I'm now standing alongside a severely wounded grey wolf who's just personally killed a dangerous creature that looks like a bad cross between a cat, a stereotypical alien, and Gollum (from Lord of the Rings) with only her fangs and wits. I guess I'm also standing alongside an aspiring Olympic archer who witnesses her courageous act and is the only person who recognizes who she really is and tries to protect her from her own extremely wolf-phobic family...

Happy Thoughts

Sometimes when things just suck, I've just got to dig up pictures that put a grin on my face.

18 meters. Stuff like this is very reassuring that I'm capable of some pretty good accuracy and precision.

Set-up for a dead-lift, one of my favorite lifts along with the bench press, squat (both front and back), snatch, and clean & jerk. Of the big lifts, I think my dead-lift is the largest by far with a personal best of 6x155 lbs (too lazy to look it up) but I'd love to see how far I can get on this one. I probably should get filmed and/or photographed doing my lifts, not only so I can see my form, but I think it'll just look cool.

2011 FITA Field

I shot a fairly strong FITA Field round this weekend in Ft. Meade, FL. My first day I did very well on the longer shots (35+ meters) even if the closer shots (under 30) gave me some trouble and the bunnies gave it to me in the rear end. I think I've re-learned how to shoot instinctively after taking it in the rear several times on Saturday, at least if the number of points I picked up is any indication! I shot a personal best today -- 225. My last personal best was a 205 (could've sworn it was a 199 but apparently I did have a 200+ before). Let's see if I can break 250 next year! I had an awesome time with my fellow barebow archers and we zipped through the targets like candy. I forgot how biased FITA Field for barebow was towards the really short shots and I went in slightly unprepared because most of my practice had been in the 35+ meter range, but not many targets were 35+ meters. In any event, I had a lot of fun seeing folks I normally don't see elsewhere.

Followed-through!

Setting up... and hopefully I calculated my 20 meter gap correctly...

Nothing like showing who's boss at 50 meters! Now if the closer shots treated me a little more nicely...

Calibration round at 18 meters. I guess my shooting style *is* replicatable. I thought I hit something strange and sure enough, I did hit something... my own arrow!

Ahh, the joys of 45 meters! 2/3 exactly where I wanted them. One kinda strayed off but still landed somewhere fairly nice.

Me and Vivian at the start of the second round while we're killing time until it's time to start...

My awesome group this weekend minus the older gentleman who shot with us on Saturday. Barebows rule!

Day 1... kinda took it in the rear end on the bunny targets and other close shots but did extremely well 40 meters and up.

Day 2... learned from day 1 and gave the bunny targets a beating.

Click on the title to see the rest of the pictures...