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.

Crunch Goes the Arrow!

The Chek-Mate Crusader T/D is still my "baby" even if I now shoot the bow that my other half built for me most of the time. I also, to my delight, found out that I could shoot it reasonably well using the style I learned from Coach Bob over at the Easton-Newberry facility. I guess between the workouts and the training, I'm getting stronger!

Trimarian Olympics 2010

A view from the target to where we shot from, about 100 yards away. This was great practice for a FITA round, at least if you're a male between 18 and 49 years old. Mar even set up a target significantly smaller than a FITA target, adding to the challenge factor. I think if we could get this group to shoot a FITA round in August or in the June Sunshine Games, we'd show them that traditional archery is alive, well, and deadly!

Nothing like the speed round at 20 yards in the Royal Round!

I finally got a hit on the target! Aesa got 2, Rurik got 1. I think we could have a deadly contingent of longbows at this rate if we can even hit this little bugger!

Bit of Progress

My workouts are paying off visually as well as constitutionally. Still got a long way to go elsewhere but I'm really liking what I'm seeing recently. It's definitely making archery practice a lot easier, especially when I'm working with the mirrors and/or camera to check my form!

Courtesy of the Range-Master

There may be a few more trickling in... still got a long way to go in shrinking the gut but things are looking a lot better than they were this time last year!

Sunshine State Games FITA

As usual, click the title for the rest of the pictures. Pictures from 900 will come later as I juggle around my online spaces.

I shot my personal best in both the FITA and the 900 round. I finished the FITA with an 853/1440 and the 900 with a 620/900. I was extremely impressed with the FITA, especially considering that my last FITA was a 515/1440 and I hadn't shot one since. The 900 was just as cool because I was pretty depleted after the FITA round and I felt nature calling to me towards the end of the shoot, especially in the final end. Apparently I am capable of holding my form and shooting reasonably well with a very full bladder!


Final round, 30 meters.

Me and the two older gentlemen in my group during the FITA round, 30 meters.

70 meters... doesn't look *too* bad!

Almost at full draw, ready to expand.

Also almost at full draw, just before expansion.

Courtesy of a Fellow Archer at the FAA Field

One of my fellow archers handed me a very nice photograph on the second day of the shoot that I forgot to post. I guess he caught me while I was in deep concentration on one of the shots.