Forest Archers Shoot

It was an absolute blast even if my score was pretty low compared to the really hard-core shooters -- 178/400. I missed a few "gimmies" when I realized that the nock-set on my bow had gotten loose at the end of the morning round and I was getting really erratic errow flight. Some fellow traditionals helped me get the nock-set back into place and get good flight back, although it took me a few shots to re-adjust. It was still a real blast -- only missed 30% of the time and I was even getting some 8's and 10's! I did have a lot of arrows ricochet though, especially on this one alligator target in the afternoon round where all four of us in the group were having trouble getting arrows to stick on the alligator... and there was a deer target that my arrow should've penetrated but instead bounced off and ricocheted most spectacularly into the grass behind the target. It was by far the best and we made several attempts to re-create it, but to no avail. The smart thing: aim for the nose. What we did: aim for the kill zone on the back. Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera with me so I didn't get pictures :( But I did get pictures of the stuff I won in the raffle once I got home... The biggest prize was the Sword fixed-pin sight, which I actually bartered for with someone who wanted a stabilizer component that I had originally one but ended up with the sight, so we swapped.

All in all, it was a great shoot, even if my score was borderline embarassing compared to the legendary traditional figures who showed up... but it's a personal best in terms of the rate at which I hit the target! I can't wait for the Traditional Bowhunters of Florida shoot in 2 weeks, assuming one of my profs doesn't decide to put in a field trip for that weekend! It was also a huge blast being able to see friends from both the compound and traditional side of shooting -- I feel a whole lot more comfortable around my fellow shooters and wilderness-types than the overly refined bar/club-hopping peers I'm surrounded by at school.

I Want A Barf Bucket Or At Least a 700 nm Filter For My Glasses

I tend not to remember most holidays until they hit me right in the nose or the eyes. Valentine's Day was no exception -- it took me a while to realize why there was so much abuse of pink, white, and red as well as rather tasteless images of hearts and almost-naked winged babies (eeewww!!!) I can live with the red and white, having gone to a high school whose school colors were just that. Plus red and white are a pretty good combination for fletching colors if I want to find my arrows again. For some reason, I get really nauseous when I see all the Valentine's Day stuff all over the place, including around the nice little forest corridors I like to hide in when I get fed up with being around too many people and being indoors for too long but can't quite leave campus because of some academic commitment or another. When I saw all that tasteless stuff all over campus, there were three possible courses of action that ran through my mind: 1) run into the bathroom to purge the ickiness out of my system before proceeding 2) bolt into my office 3) hide in my apartment. I ended up with taking the 3rd one -- the 1st one wasn't going to make me any more productive, the 2nd one was tempting until I realized that my office-mates were enthusiastic about it and I'd get very little work done because I have an office-mate who's struggling with Python programming and linear algebra, so I opted to just hide at home to get work done. Plus I figure my office-mates won't exactly enjoy the conditions that help to write: blasting music, frequent pacing, and acting a lot like Gollum/Smeagol.

And when I got a bit too saturated from work, I spent a bit of quality time with my trusty Chek-Mate recurve at Gator Bowmen. I'm back to working on my thesis proposal with several papers on evapotranspiration and carbon flux modelling, a few papers on artifical neural networks, and several pieces of scratch paper to sketch my conceptual model with. And my Chek-Mate is sitting next to me. I love shooting my compound and I can shoot extremely well with it, but the Chek-Mate is my non-academic love! I'll take a good, reliable bow any day over a human... In fact here's a top 10 list of why a bow is better than a human, in no particular order:

-- Bows are perfectly content watching me study or write proposals
-- They're extremely honest about me (ie, if my form is off, it WILL tell me!)
-- They don't call me during class and wonder why I don't ever pick up the phone
-- They understand the concept of "do not disturb"
-- It's much easier to really get to know the bow really well (ie, no need to go on lengthy dates that interfere with studying when a good test-shoot will suffice)
-- Bows share my taste in the kind of place I want to live in (ie, not in a *.* big city)
-- Bows don't have random baggage to give me grief
-- Bows transport very well
-- Bows don't try to get me to go to annoying/useless social functions
-- Bows don't try to interfere with my ambitions by wanting to start a family with me

If I Could Do This More Consistently...

Not bad for someone who hasn't been practicing nearly enough... and this was, of course, from my Bowtech Equalizer. The top one was a 30-yard field target and the middle one was a 48-yard hunter target.

Burn, Baby, Burn!

I got to go to a real controlled burn yesterday with my Ecosystems of Florida class and did my little fire ecology experiment. I was looking at how much trees (slash pines, Pinus eliottii) were utilized as fire escape routes for bugs and other small animals as a function of saw palmetto (Serenoa repens) cover. Basically saw palmetto, besides being not fun to hold by the stalks and providing some awful tasting emergency food, makes for great fires and might be an un-incentive for little critters to go underground, but at the same time, maybe can also make going up trees a lot more dangerous and actually encourage more critters to go underground. So my way of testing this was wrapping the tree's cicrumference about 3 meter above the ground (as high as I can safely reach with the ladder) and manipulating palmetto cover by hacking it up and dumping the hacked up bits elsewhere so I'd have full cover, half cover, and no cover within a 1 meter radius. I had 6 replicates of 3 treatments and my gut-instinct conclusion is: put the duct tape much higher up the tree, although I did catch a few bugs, but the real prize was a little common anole. Most of my tapes were either severely melted, or in two of my replicates, completely burned away. I might post my results after doing a real analysis :)

And I Dub Thee... Lizardbane

I did it again -- killed a lizard at the range again. This time it was from 10 yards and for some reason I thought it was a really green leaf or some random detritus that someone had placed on the target face. I took a shot at it and it started twitching so I knew it wasn't what I thought it was. I decided to put it out of its misery by taking a few more shots at it knowing that at 10 yards, my accuracy is pretty darned good. The second shot already finished it off but I figure I might as well finish my accuracy/precision drill. I felt a strange sense of pride in being able to make that kill once I realized what it was -- in terms of scaling, if I can get that kind of accuracy on a lizard, imagine what I can do with a deer or a hog!

What made this even more interesting was that this happened while I was testing a theory someone had about why my aim was so off with my trusty Chek-Mate recurve even if the flight looked pretty good, namely that I was way underspined with that batch of arrows. So I had taken my longbow and my 30 lb Martin X-200 (aka the Little One even if it is longer than my Chek-Mate) to do a bit of a comparison to see which bow my last batch of arrows fit. Without a doubt, I had much better results with the Martin X-200, which I semi-expected because I'm only getting 20-25 lbs out of it with my piddly 25" draw, although for that little draw weight, it sure sends those heavy arrows flying pretty well out to 35-40 yards. I had the same leftwards bias with the longbow as I did with my Chek-Mate recurve, while I generally hit where I aimed (give or take a bit of a stochastic error function) with the X-200 with this batch of arrows.

100th Post!

Well, looks like I've reached the 100th post finally! Basically the link is of good, inspiring guitar playing that a friend of mine sent to me after he got a full blast of me ranting and raving about my research proposal, experimental design involving a controlled burn, and being stressed over not having enough time to roam about and shoot.

Not much else going on here although I'm realizing that experimental designing in ecology can be quite the challenge! I wanted to measure the use of trees as an escape route for a low-intensity fire (as is typical of slash pine forest) based on the quantity of flammable materials (ie, saw palmettoes) near the tree. After I presented this idea to my FL ecosystems prof, we must've spent a good half hour going over the pitfalls of the various possibilities in sampling schemes, logistical issues, and statistical analyses. All this for a simple experiment in catching bugs during a fire! I'm looking forward to taking out my frustration on the saw palmettoes though and watching things burn -- the lack of archery time does have an interesting effect on me of late.

Writing update: I now have a bit of an "out-take" section that'll probably grow soon. You can reach it at http://www.ugcs.caltech.edu/~greywolf/out-takes

I might also do another writing FAQ soon -- I've been getting a lot of verbal questions of late!

Hilarious Video

For some reason, this just made me laugh to the point where I have to share it!

End of January Updates...

Besides trying to nail my prospectus together and surviving my classes, not too much else has happened aside from the following:

-- Went on a field trip to Seahorse Key. It was a real blast and was actually worth missing the Traditional Bowhunters of Florida tournament for. My immune system didn't approve of the saltwater marshes or the mangroves though :(

-- Dabbled with the yahoo picture service. Besides Seahorse Key, I also did one for my Bowtech Equalizer and my Chek-Mate Hunter I. Once I figure out how to post them on my blog, I will post them here!

-- Took first place in the traditional category at the 3-D circuit shoot. Admittedly, it was a rather embarassing score for me (104/300) but heck, it's still a record for me considering I only lost 4 arrows (as opposed to my usual 7-8) and hit 60% of the targets. I've done much better at practices with 80% hit rates and scoring closer to 120/300, but under competetive conditions and extremely cold weather, I can't complain too much! I've now got a base-line for the rest of the season too and some much-needed practice for the upcoming TBoF shoot in March! And wish me luck that none of my professors decide to dump a mandatory field trip on THAT weekend! With luck, maybe I can dodge some of my field trips so I can make it to the rest of the circuit shoots -- after all, I'm also learning about Florida ecosystems... I actually did take my field notes with me to the shoot to practice my plant identification :)

-- Still writing the sequel to Telcontar Restored. It'll be a long time before I post this one, probably an even longer gap than with Telcontar... All I can say at this point is that my ecosystems of Florida class is really leaving its mark on me, as is my time with my shooting buddies!

Won't the Lizards Ever Learn?

For some reason, my most interesting shots occur right when I don't have my camera. Today after a rather torturous bus ride to avoid the rain that never came, I decided to go to Gator Bowmen for a bit before studying. I took my recurve with me and here's a list of some of the more exciting shots besides being able to get decent groups up to about 25 yards and even hitting fairly small spots at 20 yards and under:

-- There was a bit of a dark spot on one of the field targets that showed up much more clearly than the actual spot. I nailed it from about 10 yards and it was under fairly low light conditions. Turned out that dark spot was a lizard who apparently got a bit too lazy (or cold) to move. I saw the spot writhing after I hit it and sure enough when I went to retrieve the arrow, it was bloody and there was a pretty mangled-looking lizard with a big hole in its back.

-- There was a shot I was taking from about 12 yards for one of these 10 yard target (for compounds) because there are some pretty darned close shots in 3-D shoots with tiny 10 point rings. I aimed a bit high as I tend to do when it's fairly dark and I saw a lizard scampering out and another falling out from under the target and yet another flying out in panic. The one that fell out was in two pieces and I pulled out a bloody arrow.

What did I do afterwards? I continued shooting -- I get far too little time at the range as it is so I just kept shooting until it was too dark! I got some strange sense of satisfaction in being able to shoot these little guys and there's also something oddly fun about being able to catch these lizards, preferably without forcing them to jettison their tails.

As an aside... it's also quite satisfying to be able to shoot a palmetto bug, roach, or freakishly large spider from about 10-20 yards back. I think it's the whole concept of the target that shows up really strongly against the black or white background that draws me to these more interesting targets. Let's just hope that if I do start hunting, I can land a nice solid kill-shot either through the lungs, windpipe, or femoral artery!

And Now I Know!

I finally shot through the chronometer today to get an actual number for how fast my trusty Chek-Mate is with my wooden arrows. The number that came out was 134 feet per second consistently at a 25" draw (anchoring at the corner of my mouth instead of the back of my jaw). This means I'm getting about 37-38 lbs of draw weight tops. That's not too bad for that piddly of a draw weight and heavy arrows! So I'm guessing that I was getting around 145-155 fps at my preferred draw (back of the jaw) with the much lighter but still fairly heavy carbon arrows I used to use.

I'm so tempted to get 50 lb @ 25" (around 57-59 lbs @ 28") limbs for my Chek-Mate recurve to see what kind of speeds I can get, plus I know that 50 lbs on a traditional bow is within my comfort range... but that'll have to wait until I have more daylight hours to myself.

Daydreams...

Earlier today after I sneaked in a bit of time at the range with my compound, I came back to the sight of a pair of fairly large ducks wandering around. I suddenly felt an urge to stalk them for a few yards, taking my time to estimate the distance and adjusting my field sight for the shot. Keep in mind, my sight is NOT appropriate at all for hunting and most people who hunt with a compound use fixed pin sights, although I know a few compound shooters who shoot bare-bow. I'm just following the ducks, trying to move as undetectedly as possible. I went so far as to practice nocking an arrow to my bow quietly and taking aim, but I didn't draw back, knowing that some psychotic neighbor might report me just for drawing back. Plus I don't have appropriate points on my carbon arrows -- the field points would doom the ducks to a rather slow death compared to a nice broadhead. And then there was the issue of dealing with the carcasses. I merely continued to stalk the ducks, always estimating distance and imaginging where I'd aim on them. Maybe someday I can really take a real shot, but for now, I have to content myself with target shooting. Oh I also came to the conclusion that if I ever do shoot those ducks, I'd use my recurve -- at that short of a distance, I think I can still get a good pass-through and my aim is good enough to guarantee a good kill shot.

I really hope I can do something about my academic schedulling -- the prospect of having at most one day to shoot (unless you count destroying the walls in my apartment as shooting) isn't a pleasant one. I came close to using the school's free psychological services when I couldn't get to the range for over a month... so the thought of a semester with almost no shooting is one that leaves me with a very nasty feeling in my stomach and more than a bit of anxiety. I don't function without alone time out in the wilderness as most people around me become painfully aware of! To be honest, I don't think I could ever return to living in a big city -- I need my outdoors a lot and there's few things that nauseate me more than seeing open spaces being turned into horrible things like shopping malls. Aren't there already enough of those horrible things where the only things worth looking at are the book store and hardware store... and a sporting goods store? But I digress... bottom line, not enough time for myself outdoors and I become a real safety hazard.

There's nothing that can compare to the joys of being outdoors among the trees with a trusty weapon and mastering it to the point of being able to consistently hit that distant, almost abstract spot. The compound is a wonderful blend of both physical and mental challenge, a chance to empty the mind and to "be the spot" as I aim and hold it up until I can slowly squeeze that trigger for a smooth release. The traditional provides a different set of challenges for me, mostly mental as I develop my aiming instincts and sense of distance, but also physical in making sure my form is consistent in everything from the angle I lean in to where I anchor my shot. It is in shooting that I can really re-energize myself both mentally and physically, a truly intense source of happiness and relaxation. I guess a friend of mine was right when he once told me that I'd find my strength, both mental and physical, once more if I spent more time outdoors in the wilderness with a quiver full of arrows and a bow in my hand!

3-D Vanity Shots

All I can say is despite having done well in 3-D last week with my compound (distance judging, finding what to hit, etc), I like the feel of my little Chek-Mate recurve much better for 3-D... even if I'm getting about half the points that I would be getting with my Equalizer. With my recurve, I was quite pleased with myself for hitting almost all of the targets, even if I miscalculated on my aim and hit any of the following locations: under the tail, where the sun don't shine, nose, knee. I'm looking forward to the upcoming 3-D shoots, academics permitting!

I'm Going to Lizard Hell...

I think I just set a new record for myself today. I've maimed 4 lizards today, 1 of which I know was fatal. As I was pulling my arrows, I've had the following occur:

-- What looked like a smooth, thin twig fell out of the target, except it was twitching violently. This happened twice.
-- A butt, tail, and hind legs with blood on them came out as I was pulling one arrow out. It was followed by the rest of the little critter. My camera was dead by then, so sorry, no picture :(
-- A lizard with a mangled-looking leg/foot running away from me when I went to pull the arrows.

I managed to catch 3 lizard too -- they were unusually slow today. One of them actually shed the tip of its tail. I swear, I am NEVER going to pick up another lizard by the tip of its tail again! The tail actually fell off like a really weak rubber band. Then there was one lizard that peed/pooped so I just let it go. Then there was one lizard that I was able to hang onto long enough to take pictures of it. It was pretty neat actually because once I let it near my arrow, it latched on like velcro. I was extremely tempted to take it with me, but I decided against it and just let it run off and do whatever things lizards do after the terror of being caught by an archer who's probably killed many of its buddies. They should be grateful that I wasn't shooting traditional, which has a much larger error function and is more likely to hit them! Most of the lizards seem to be smart enough to avoid the bull's eye area, which protects them from most compound shooters. If there's a lizard god, I'm probably going to go straight to lizard hell for all the lizards I've maimed or killed!




Here's some of my highlights from today: A 36-36-36-36 yard fan and a 64-59-55-52 yard walk-up. I seem to be a lot stronger in the hunter side, although targets 22-26 seem to always give me trouble, probably from my stamina flagging a bit before my energy comes back at targets 27 and 28, which are so close that even I can see where I hit. I did go past 500 today -- got a 503, although I know there were several targets I could've easily done a lot better on, especially all of the under 35 yard targets, where I have a tendency to give away points by either taking my shot too soon or having my left wrist twitch at the last instant. All in all, though, I'm happy that I'm starting to close that gap between me and my shooting group -- with enough practice, I should soon find myself slowly approaching a perfect 560... not sure how long that will take, but it's a goal as long as my academics will let me outdoors! I'm not exactly thrilled about having early morning classes, late afternoon seminars, and class/seminar chopping my afternoon so I can't even sneak off campus, and most likely, most of my weekends being taken over too, but heck, I'm here for my education and to contribute to the field of ecology... and that takes priority over everything else, even over my own mental and physical health. I already miss having those night-time geography classes!

More FAQs on Dunheasa/Telcontar

I've been getting yet more questions... so here are my responses to them:

From Whispers from Afar"

Q: Who is Tarathorn based on?
A: Academically, Tarathorn's based on me, but the persona is based on someone I knew at Caltech from the ballroom dance team. She was also inspired by some freakishly young students I've run into -- those little 14-year olds who made the grading curves in my biology classes really hurt!

Q: How close-to-life were the professors in the story?
A: Some were almost dead-on, some are amalgamations of various characters I've run into over the years, most just had quirks from memorable professors I've had over the years.

Q: Who or what was Billie-Joanna (from Whispers from Afar) based on?
A: A favorite D&D character I played in a very long campaign, who also shows up in Telcontar Restored but in an older, mellower form.

Q: Was organic chemistry THAT bad to have a story like Whispers from Afar?
A: Yes and no. It was a pretty painful series, but at least I didn't have anything more embarassing than a yield of 1% on an experiment that should've yielded at least 25%

Q: Who/what were the Tuonela from Whispers from Afar based on?
A: To be honest, I wasn't thinking too much about that. The name "Tuonela" I think comes from either Finnish or Scandinavian mythology, Finnish more likely. As far as the people themselves, physically I visualize them as looking more Aztec or Mayan but culturally, fairly western European. The name "Andraste" comes from Celtic mythology, the name just stood out for some random reason at the time. A future story may flesh out the Tuonela a whole lot more.

Q: Will Tarathorn ever go back to Tuonela?
A: Who knows... ?

From multiple stories:

Q: Which characters are based on you?
A: In a sense, most of them are in some aspect or another, usually something academic or some really interesting/amusing (mis)adventure. Joanne de Salvo (from Journey to Dunheasa) is most blatantly based on me and Captain Greywolf is a fantasy version of me. Kestrel is also pretty blatantly based on myself, although a much spazzier version!

Q: Is Tuonela connected to the Crossroads? And where exactly is Tuonela?
A: Not directly but it is a lot closer to the Crossroads than this world! It's in the world known as Palindor, which is where Vincent and Ivan end up going in Telcontar Restored when Kestrel takes them on a the little trip.

Q: Chronologically, how are these stories supposed to go?
A: Journey to Dunheasa is first. Whispers from Afar and Peek at Geekster Life take place around the same time, although Peek goes further ahead in time. After those two, Telcontar takes place.

The Wicker Man

Here's the Wicker Man that my friends built before we set him on fire. Basically, my traditional archery coach and her husband have a New Years party where they build this big Ent-like thing and all the guests put something in, either a scroll with a note or some paper/wood/cloth-based item into the Wicker Man as a new year's wish or resolution. My fellow archers and I nick-named this one "Treebeard" after the old Ent in Lord of the Rings and I really felt at home once again when we were discussing how big Treebeard really had to be to be able to pick up two hobbits. It's really refreshing to be able to talk about Tolkien and Dungeons and Dragons again! Besides the ritual burning, there was also plenty of really good food, including barbequed wild boar, which is much, much better than the store-bought stuff! I might just take up bow-hunting to get that occasional fix for really good meat!

There were some people who cracked me and my friends up when they decided to make Treebeard anatomically correct, at least for a human! I didn't realize that they put a sock somewhere amusing until one of the children couldn't stop laughing and pointed out where the sock was hanging. Then we also noticed that several people had placed their scrolls in other places where things didn't quite belong. You can probably guess based on the pictures what was so hilarious!

There's Treebeard burning brightly:

Traditional Fun

I tried my new arrows for the first time on Friday and got pretty good results... considering that I'm fairly rusty in my traditional shooting and had to work to get my form back to par. I forgot that 40-50 yards is VERY difficult for me, but even when I missed, my arrows always came back to me. Nothing broke, nothing came off, but darn, my bow nailed those arrows in harder than some compounds I've been around! It's amusing knowing that my recurve is nailing those arrows in deeper at 40 yards than my compound coach's 61 lb compound does at the same distance, although a lot of it is also the weight distribution on the arrow. I also tried a precision drill at 15 yards and while I wasn't quite able to hit the bull's eye on those tiny little things, I did get a pretty good group once I got my form back together. I think these arrows are a real set of winners in my book and hopefully I'll be able to nail some 3-D targets at the upcoming TBoF shoot this month! It's very refreshing to shoot traditional and I think I've decided that even if I am a lot more competetive and have a blast with my compound, I still love my recurve more!

Crystal River and Completed Arrows

I finally finished constructing the arrows that I'm planning to use for the Traditional Bowhunters shoot and other 3-D shoots on Sorondil-Telcontar (my Chek-Mate recurve). The points were rather fun to put on, aside from my fear of setting the place on fire because of residual methyl-ethyl-ketone fumes. It took a fair amount of effort to make sure they didn't come off while they were cooling down and I got a small cutting board dedicated for the very purpose of making sure the points stayed on until the bond between the point and shaft was set. All in all, I think these arrows should fly fairly nicely -- I spin-tested them again after adding the points and they were still spinning nicely, indicating good balance and straightness. The real test, of course, will be when I shoot them in the morning at the range.



This was a golden-hooded night heron that I got to approach when I was hiking out at Crystal River and ran into a group from the Audoubon society that was doing diversity and abundance censuses in the area. The camera really didn't do this bird justice because when the light strikes the head feathers at the right angle, it looks iridescent gold, even in the immature ones.



At the Withalacoochee River, I had an up-close and personal encounter with a pelican with the help of a family that was out fishing. I've never seen a pelican that close before and I was tempted to approach it, but with my luck, I'd probably get attacked or worse. The family actually offered it a fish they had caught and it was pretty aggressive about taking the fish, so I decided to play it safe, although pelicans don't have any obviously dangerous attacks like parrots. Of all birds, I have to honestly admit that I'm most afraid of getting into a fight with a parrot because for their size, they can do some serious damage with their beaks. I know someone who lost a finger to a cockatoo once and I know another person who had to go to the ER to get their nose fixed after a cockatiel (a fairly small, docile member of the parrot family) took a good bite out of it.

All in all, it was worth the trip out to Ingliss/Yankeetown/Crystal River to do a bit of exploring! Next time, I'm going to be better prepared with more food and water so I can take some of the more exciting hikes.

Nearly Forgot...

I also have a revised version of "Whispers From Afar" posted. More on the Dunheasa series once I'm done building this set of arrows and actually have something to post!

Fletching...

Fletching is probably the most time-consuming step, but it's also my favorite in an oddly relaxing sort of way. Just to give an idea of the time it takes to do a decent job of fletching, it usually takes about 5-7 minutes for the glue to dry enough for me to not be afraid to move to the next feather -- with 3 feathers on each arrow for 24 arrows, this process does take a while! Also, I have to take frequent stops to remove any accumulated glue residues from my Bitzenburger clamp to make sure I'm not going to glue a feather to the clamp or leave a bunch of glue blobs on my arrow. This time around, I decided to go with a black/white color scheme and I also used the reflective adhesive cap wraps to accent my arrows. Besides making it almost impossible to lose my arrows under just about any lighting condition, it also makes gluing the feathers on a lot easier. I've had problems in the past with chemical incompatibilities between the glue and the surface and the easiest solution has been to use these nice cap wraps. Right now, I'm more concerned about being able to retrieve my arrows and identifying them than producing works of art, although I have to admit, for my first time going all-out with paint, stain and sealant, it looks pretty good. I'm also hoping they'll also fly really well!

I still have to add the points onto the arrows but that's going to have to wait until the morning when all of the methyl-ethyl-ketone fumes have gone away so I don't blow myself up in a spectacular fireball. Wooden arrows are so much more rewarding than carbons in terms of construction... although the carbons provide much more instant gratification!

Perspective at the 80 Yard Marker...

The bottom picture is what I see at the 80 yard marker without my the magnifier on my scope. The top picture is a bit closer to what I see with the scope -- my camera can go up to a 2.5x zoom, my scope is a 5x zoom. Keeping my aim steady (in my eyes) is pretty darned challenging when I'm trying to aim at something that looks like the size of an aspirin!

Wooden Arrows

As of Wednesday night, I started building wooden arrows for the first time in several times after realizing that wooden arrows for my traditional bows are a lot more fulfilling, even if the carbon arrows are a lot more consistent and easier to build. On Wednesday and early Thursday (no pictures, sorry), I straightened out the shafts, which is a very involved process that's more than worth the effort. Once I straightened the arrows, I decided to stain the arrows grey to give them a bit more character. Methyl ethyl ketone is a stinky solvent!!! The stain didn't get in uniformly, but it did get in well enough to give them a shadowy grey cast. Once I stained them (3 times by wiping the stain in with some rags) and letting them dry overnight, I decided to trim the arrows from 32" to 29" to get the spine to match my bow and points. Once I trimmed the arrows, I tapered the nock end so I could get some measurements for cresting (painting). Again, methyl ethyl ketone stinks!!! Oh, every time I reach a stinky step, I either went outside to do it (staining) or thanks to the rain, I opened up my windows (cresting).

Remaining steps:
-- Sealing the arrows with a polyurethane-like material (VERY stinky step that I have to do outside when it's dry)
-- Tapering the point end of the arrow
-- Final straightening
-- Glue nock (grey)
-- Add fletching (black and white color scheme this time)
-- Glue points (125 grain field points)
-- Go shooting!

80-70-60-50 Field Walkup

This has to have been one of my best rounds ever... Not a perfect 20 (got a 1X 19) but given the distance, I was extremely excited. My first shot was from 80 yards, which is a bit beyond my sight tape and then the rest of the shots were from 70, 60, and 50 yards respectively. The outlier was from the 50 yard line, where my arm was just getting a bit tired and I dropped my shot. The one in the perfect center was from 70 yards. I have to admit, having a pair of binoculars and taking the time to determine how much of a correction I have to apply to my sight at a given distance was more than worth the effort! I can't wait to get a sight tape that matches my draw weight and arrows so I don't have to spend as much time coming up with correction factors... and I can't wait to get my draw weight up to about 47-48 lbs so I can actually aim for the 80 yards without having to set the sight for 70 yards (to allow for fletching clearance) and hope that my estimates were correct.

Now all I have to keep doing is see if I can get more 19s and 20s by working on my form and aim, although having mostly 17s and 18s is a good start! My lowest score today: 15 at a field target where I had a lot of glare and unusually aggressive insects that weren't bothered by my insect repellent. Highest score today: 20 at a fairly up-close hunter-round target.

Accuracy and Precision Obsession

Just to give you an idea of the kind of precision and accuracy I'm trying for, the vane on the arrow is 1 3/4 inches long. I'm trying to get as many of my arrows within a circle with that diameter. The diameter of the X ring is about 7/8 inches. This target I was using is designated for 20-35 feet. I was shooting from 60 feet back. I'm still trying to see if I can use that center X ring as my standard -- I've seen people get all of their arrows in there from 30 yards and more, so what's holding me back from attempting to do this at 20 yards? An actual 5-spot target for the 300 has an X ring diameter of 1 5/8 inches and the whole 5 ring is 3 1/8 inches in diameter, by the way.

Shooting two 300 rounds earlier today was pretty mentally and physically trying, but it was worth trying to see how accurately and precisely I could place my shots... which in turn is a reflection of my form and to a lesser extent, my ability to actually aim. The Equalizer gets pretty darned heavy by the last round... and 120 arrows on the Equalizer at only 41 lbs under mock 300 conditions takes more out of me than about 250 shots on my traditional at about the same draw weight!

300

I survived my first 300 today. Basically the 300 is 12 rounds of 5 arrows each for a maximum of 300 points with the inner white ring as 5 points, first black ring as 4 points, and second black ring as 3 points, and of course, anything in that inner white circle is an X. I didn't do too well, but then again, considering I haven't shot compound for 2 weeks and I went in slightly tenderized from what might've been a bit too aggressive practice yesterday. Overall, my score was 261 with 17 X's, which makes for a decent baseline but one where I know I can do much better.

Why did I attempt the 300? It's another common style of archery competition and it's a good one for accuracy/precision drills, whether I do the single target or the five spot version. It's also great for building up stamina, which I'm still a bit short on with the compound. Sixty shots in bursts of five are very easy physically with my short recurve, but the real challenge is remaining mentally focused. With the compound, I also have the added physical challenge of actually holding the bow steady in my hand on top of focusing on those little dots. I personally like the single target myself because I'm still working on consistency, but my coach had me shoot the five spot to get me used to the more aggressive competition. He completely destroyed the centre on the single target... I aspire to do that too soon!

Raptors...

I got really fed up with being cooped up indoors so I finally took my chances (it was a warm day!) and went out to the range. It was either that or destroy another wall in my apartment or worse. I took Sorondil-Telcontar (the Chek-Mate Hunter I recurve) and Hawk-Wing (the Little Hawk longbow... finally "officially" gave it a name besides "Forgiveness") with me to see which one I want to use for this upcoming year for my competitions. My verdict: I think I prefer Sorondil-Telcontar because it's easier to transport and it's easier for me to aim but Hawk-Wing might be better for a really long tournament because it's a lot more forgiving, which is critical for when I'm tired.

I also saw a very beautiful hawk at the range. I couldn't identify the species, but it was a fairly large one that kept eyeing me and keening at me. I suspect I was probably getting on its nerves by being in its territory, but I want to think that maybe it was trying to tell me something. Of all birds, the most beautiful in my book are the raptors -- hawks, eagles, and falcons. I did get a picture of it, but my camera isn't all that good for long distance and I didn't want to approach too closely knowing what an angry hawk can do to someone with their talons and beak... plus I didn't want to bother it more than I had to. The hawk kept eyeing me and I could just feel it just look straight through me -- not many animals will give me that experience of making me realize that there's more than what meets the human eye. I've seen my fair share of wildlife up close and personal, but this hawk really had me wondering if it knew secrets that were beyond human understanding and what it saw in me. Raptors may not necessarily be among the most intelligent of birds by human standards, but they do have that intense gaze that gives them a strange depth of character and a sense of being equals with humans.

Kick-Butt Meatloaf

Still sick, but getting ready to resume my natural functioning soon!

One thing I've been doing while being effectively cooped up indoors is cooking stuff that I normally wouldn't be inclined to cook because I'm too fidgety and have too many other things to do outside. My most recent conquest: meatloaf. Here's what I did to make myself some pretty decent meatloaf that'll probably last me about 3-4 days. It is a bit on the dry side, but the BBQ sauce, vegetables and mashed crackers do hold it together nicely.

Ingredients:
2 large chopped sweet yellow onions
3/4 lb chopped celery
1/2 lb chopped carrots
1/3 box of multi-grain crackers
2 lbs lean ground turkey
2/3 bottle Hickory smoke-flavored BBQ sauce
3 tablespoons of garlic paste
canola oil
black pepper (to taste)
cayenne pepper (to taste)
paprika (to taste)

Pre-heat oven to 350 F. Chop up onions and sautee them in canola oil until tender. Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl until it's as homogeneous as ground meat and coarsely chopped veggies and cracker bits can be. Once it's homogeneous, put in a large baking pan (forgot the dimensions, think it's 13x9) and it's probably a good idea to lightly grease it to avoid having stuff stuck onto the pan. [Note: I basted the meatloaf before putting it into the oven, I recommend waiting until the last 15-20 minutes unless you like carbonized crusts on top]. Bake for about 1 hour 45 minutes, basting the top of the meatloaf with any remaining BBQ sauce or other tomato-based sauce.

Survived First Semester at UF

I just turned in my last final and I'm just waiting for my cough medicine to take effect before I attempt to finally catch up on sleep. I can't wait to let my body and mind fully recover so I can go back to functioning (read: shooting random dots, biking, and moving forward on my research again).

Telcontar FAQ 2/n

First note: I've got final projects and a pretty hefty cold bug that's slowing me down... so I haven't been able to do my natural activity of shooting at random things for a few days (ie, since Saturday afternoon)... and it's making me somewhat batty to say the least. Let's just say the TIN model of my brain is moving towards the need for finer resolution data points...

Here's a few more questions I've gotten (for some reason it's always either private e-mail or on the phone)

Q: What do the students' alternate names signify?
A: Ivan --> Orozslan (lion), Vincent --> Eol Tinuvion (Eol is the name of a dark elf in the Silmarillion, Tinuvion translates to "son of the twilight" or "male nightingale"), Tarathorn --> Imladrien (child of the valley).

Q: What language(s) were you tinkering with this time?
A: Mostly Tolkien's Elvish, but also some Hungarian, Scots & Irish Gaelic, and Finnish.

Q: Are there any maps of the Crossroads, Dunheasa, Mag-na-Oige, etc?
A: In my mind and in very rough sketches. I might post them eventually once I actually get them to a non-embarassing quality.

I'll answer more questions in the next installment once I get through this bug and finals.

Telcontar FAQ 1/n

I've been getting some questions about Telcontar Restored... here's some of the more common ones I've gotten so far... Oh and by the way, I've got the Dunheasa link on my webpage up.

Q: Are Kestrel and Soronthrel (or Captain Greywolf) the same person?
A: No. Kestrel is a whole different creature whose story I'm still working on even after nearly 6 years. She's also completely unrelated to Captain Greywolf. The common threads between Kestrel, Soronthrel and Captain Greywolf are that they're academics who got tangled up with Cylithera Eaglestrike and all handled the situation in different ways.

Q: Do the students (Vincent, Ivan, and Tarathorn) remember what happened to them at the Crossroads and beyond?
A: Yes and no. I'll let you ponder over that one before I write up the next part.

Q: Have you actually performed any of the songs that the Geeksters wrote?
A: Only one of their songs. I don't have the vocal range or the improvisational skills quite yet to fully flesh out their songs. I had a demo of one of them but I lost it.

There's a lot more questions but I'm exhausted and the cold medication is finally kicking in so I can actually sleep at last!

News Bite

Small update here -- I will be tinkering with my website on and off a bit, so things may be moving around. In the workings are:

-- A more thoroughly cleaned-up version of Journey to Dunheasa and Telcontar Restored
-- A separate section for the Geeksters series
-- Hopefully also a cleaned-up version of "Whispers From Afar"
-- (VERY much in the semi-distance future) A sequel to Telcontar... Who knows what THAT will involved given my most recent misadventures =)

Ear Worms

So... I've been woken up by a random loud noise (fire truck? ambulance? some other noisy siren-ed vehicle?) and I can't quite go back to sleep. There's a song that's severely stuck in my head for whatever reason... or at least a piece of a song. The sucky part: it's in a language that I can fake some knowledge of! Even worse: It's the kind of song that usually makes me cringe but I seem to have become desensitized to recently. I'll let you try to guess what the language is.

Here's the part that's stuck in my little brain:

Oriude ai fi, eu te voi gasi
Oriunde tu ai fi, eu te voi iubi
Oriunde-n noapte sau zi te voi gasi
In sinea mea cand voi iubi
Dulcea mea, amara mea...te voi gasi

Te voi iubi in noapte, sub cerul plin de stele
Ca-n visuile mele, cand te voi gasi
Te voi strange-n brate, ca-n ultima noapte
Mereu voi fi aproape, cand te voi...gasi...

Telcontar Restored Revision

I've just posted the second draft of Telcontar Restored. Read and enjoy!

November Update

It's been a while since I've last posted -- life has been pretty exciting ever since I started training heavily in compound bow and trying to get all my term projects nailed down. My most recent archery accomplishment was on Tuesday morning where I nailed all 4 arrows in the X-ring (arrow only needs to be tangent to the line) from 15 yards. I never got a perfect 20 with 4 X's -- I've had 20s with 1-2 X's, but never 4! I was extremely excited, especially considering I was having some trouble calibrating my sight earlier and my arrows are both over-weight and over-spined for me! The only complaint was that I was all by myself when it happened, but heck, at least I had my camera with me! I can only imagine what I can do with my Equalizer once I hit about 47-50 lbs draw weight, get properly spined arrows for it, and keep practicing... ;)

Besides shooting, I've been sneaking in some time writing. Telcontar is still being cleaned up after my initial posting but once I get to a new stopping point, I'll post an updated version. The third part is also in progress. I have no title as of yet, but let's just say it may be a very long time before Part 3 shows up because I've got so much on my plate with my research, proposals, and trying to survive classes along with my need to be outdoors.