The Long Awaited Arrival: Tehanu

She's finally arrived after all this waiting! It's going to take a while to get her tuned up as the string stretches and I get used to this set-back grip after shooting handle-forward for a long time, but things are looking reasonably good. I'm getting a lot of nock-high flight and it looks like my best candidate for an arrow is a full-length Gold Tip 3555 Hunter arrow, although that may change as I get used to her quirks. Here's some stats on the new member of my family:
Make/Model: Chek-Mate Longhorn
Draw weight: 47 lbs @ 25"
Length: 58"
Woods: Pacific Yew limbs, Greybark Actionwood core, Chechen & Bolivian Rosewood riser
Name: Tehanu (after one of my favorite characters in Ursula LeGuinn's Earthsea books, this is one fiery little bow although I'm kinda relieved that I didn't have to go to 5575 Gold Tips. Certainly a fast one though, even if she's not shooting a stiff of a spine as some of my other bows for that weight.)

Long Hammock and Paynes Prairie

I think the pictures tell the story very well! I'm having trouble UL'ing the pictures so you'll just have to click on the title to see them this time!

New Member of the Family et al

Big News
I thought I'd just throw a heads-up that my family is fixin' to grow. More details as things unfold, including pictures. I'm more excited than a caffeine'd-up Pomeranian that's been let loose in the kitchen with a roast chicken (cooled to a safe eating temperature, of course) and mirrors within reach!

Writings
Speaking of Pomeranians, I really should do that little blurb on how I learned a lot about Southern culture from a little Pomeranian puppy. Maybe this spring break after I finish up giving my regression lectures and grading forest mensuration papers!

As far as other writings go, I'm still stuck, again with all the other stuff I've gotten myself involved in. Maybe though something will come up this spring break. I'm watching Tinuvion learn how to stop gap-shooting and to embrace his feral roots, feeling Imladrien's struggle with both a back-tension release and her conflicting urges of loyalty/honor and living for the moment, and pondering over Oroszlan's debate with himself about his identity even as he becomes more adept with manipulating wind and fire.

In my other projects, I'm also wondering how far is too far when it comes to parakeet vs human anatomy/physiology and random toilet humor and whether Tindariel's administering far too much Frontier Justice to help her best friend, Killer Parakeet. Then there's moments where I walk alongside a crafty doppelganger mercenary with an encyclopedia-like mind and a strange fascination with both crime-lords, knights, and anyone who's just power-crazed. And then there's the ambitious priestess who wants to be more than the High Priestess of the Eternal Huntress, but rather the Eternal Huntress herself. Will she ever reach her dreams or will someone or something cut her down?

Blackhawk Vapor 2000

I'm in the process of experimenting with some new arrows I got, some Blackhawk Vapor Hunter 2000, which are spined for 35-45 lbs. So far, from bare-shafting in my apartment, it looks like the uncut shaft with a 100 grain point seems to be doing reasonably well (ie, flight is fairly straight aside from some porpoising with a bias towards nock-high). I tried the 125 and 145 grain points and I kept going tail-left, indicating that the arrows were shooting weak. I actually had some trouble remembering which went tail-left and tail-right so I had to experiment with a combination that I knew was not going to work very well -- namely the 30 lb recurve with a bare shaft that I knew spined really well for the River's Edge Recurve I seem to have gotten rather fond of the last few months. It flew tail severely to the right and I confirmed it with a few replicates and taking my 40 lb longbow and putting that through. It flew idiotically tail-right so I knew tail-left meant that the arrow was spining weak. I actually like my arrows to spine slightly weak after realizing that dead-on spining or slightly stiff spining actually hurts me in competition. Of course, things are very likely to change once I get the ratty Bear-hair rest and strike-plate off my little Chek-Mate and replace it with a nicer rest and probably readjust the the nock-set. That might also help with the problem of my arrows constantly flying nock-high because the Bear-hair rest does elevate the arrow quite a bit. I can't wait for some non-windy, non-stormy weather days where I'm not going to be stuck in front of a computer for too many hours a day! I still have to fletch the rest of the shafts and put in inserts but I'm holding off on doing so until I get a good bare-shaft tuning after changing out that ratty rest.

TBoF 2008 Highlights

I broke my personal record (330/600) and finally broke 400/600 points, putting me in 5th place in women's traditional (any type of arrow, recurve or longbow). Here's some photographic highlights of the shoot. The title will take you to the Webshots site and clicking on this will take you to the full-quality site.

No Pitchforks and Torches Yet

I survived giving my first official Forest Mensuration lecture. It was a lot of fun giving a nice little statistics review -- nothing too fancy, just measures of central tendency and dispersion. I tried to balance between chalkboard work and Powerpoint presentations to keep everyone as alert and interested as possible early in the morning. I certainly had to keep an elixir of courage with me -- a bit of iced coffee -- to keep me going, although I think my movements may've made a few of my students feel a bit dizzy. I still have a few more lectures to give on confidence intervals, calculating required sample sizes, and basic linear regressions. It's definitely a whole lot of work doing this but it's a refreshing blast of air for me, especially with that rated LB class sitting on me like a moldy sack of potatoes.

One of the most rewarding moments was an e-mail from a student of mine. She thanked me for actually going through how to calculate standard deviation by hand and explaining the different parts of the equation. I guess some of the students do have pulses at 0830 hrs!

Cinco y media en la tarde...

Ok, so the title might not be the clearest of references but I'm listening to the Moenia cover (on their StereoHits CD... which by the way is a great CD, it's basically a cover CD!) of "Tren al Sur" by Los Prisioneros and for some reason that song made me think of the little trip we took out in Bushnell :)

Here's a few of the photographic highlights over the weekend but all of the pictures I took are in one of two places: 3D Circuit and Bushnell


A fine Robin Hood shot by one of our traditional archers. I think he would've been a lot happier if he had more arrows on hand!


Weird little compound bow that really caught everyone's eye(s)


Something about archers in trees...



I'm shooting a nice little Morrison Cheyenne recurve. It's just too pretty of a bow to not pose with!


Nothing like a nice ride on an airboat!


Even better -- some good, clean fun with my fellow archers!


And down the trail we go. Will we find any hogs, turkeys or squirrels for the pot?

X Marks the Spot

A rather eXciting shot after a day of shooting unusually badly (ie, averaging less than 16 points per target). Got this one at about one chain (22 yards). I definitely need to shrink my confidence intervals and get my shots calibrated before the 3D Circuit shoot and TBoF Spring Championships!

I Swear, I'll Get A Haircut...

If I can ever find somewhere I can step into without feeling my lungs wanting to collapse from toxic cosmetic stenches and not have to wait half a century amidst lethal fumes and utter idiocy. For today though, I had a blast practicing up on my rifle skills in hopes of taking out hogs and squirrels sometime this spring. I still prefer the bow, but never hurts to have a bit of firearm training!

Results of Too Much All-Bran Extra Fiber

I think the pictures (courtesy of another shooter at Gator Bowmen who had the misfortune of being on the range with me) explain it all. Maybe having that bowl of All-Bran Extra Fiber with sugar-free, minimal fat cappuccino flavored soymilk for lunch wasn't such a smart idea. Suffice to say I felt sorry for anyone who had to stand behind me because of all the stilled, heightened (to 9th level from 2nd level), maximized, enlarged Stinking Cloud (or possibly Cloudkill raised to 9th level judging from the lack of bugs around me) spells I was casting automatically.

Odds and Ends

Not too shabby for shooting at 45 yards... think I'm still shooting a bit stiff though, may need 145 grain points or get longer shafts. I don't feel too inclined to go back to 1816 -- it's a whole lot more economical to try and stay with one size (1916) as much as I can.


Chocolate With a Kick (aka Quasi-Aztec Style Hot Cocoa)
So recently I haven't been able to enjoy real chocolate very much. On the up-shot, my gut is finally starting to look less like a puffer-fish (darn, if only I can get my butt to also fit comfortably on my bike seat... still in danger of accidentally engulfing it if I'm not careful), but I'm still a long way from my goal of seeing my toes. Anyway, I've acquired a taste for a slightly exotic chocolate drink that one of my colleagues got me hooked on. Here's my recipe for it to make sure it doesn't make me grow like an exponential function. This'll make one eight ounce serving.

-- 1 tbsp unsweetened, un-dutched cocoa powder (more flavor and character... and it even adds a bit of much-needed fiber to my system)
-- 1 tsp (sugar-free) vanilla extract
-- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
-- 1/4 tsp chili powder (pure chili pepper)
-- 4-5 packets of Splenda (possibly more, depending on how sweet you like the chocolate)
-- 8 oz mug of H2O

Mix dry ingredients together in mug. Pour hot water slowly into mug, stirring to avoid clumping and add vanilla extract.

The chili powder adds a very pleasant touch to the hot chocolate -- the heat complements the sweetness very well. Milk adds some richness to this recipe and actually tastes a bit better, but the water makes it a whole lot more compatible with my nutritional needs. I've yet to try it with soy milk, but I don't think I have the courage or the digestive fortitude to attempt that yet... if ever.

The Dunheasa Epic Crawls Ever So Slightly

I've still hardly made any progress on any of my non-academic writing, but I thought I'd share a small tidbit of the current story I'm working on, tentatively titled Imladrien and Tinuvion. I'm still sitting in the woods with our fearless little post-doc, wondering what on earth is going to happen next ;) Just a little reminder, this is the third "big" story in the Dunheasa series, the first two being Journey to Dunheasa and Telcontar Restored. There's a second untitled story on the burner as well, which I won't reveal much beyond the return of some of the Knight-Errants from Journey to Dunheasa. I'm not sure which one I'll finish first but I suspect that this untitled story will be a lot easier to complete.

Anyway, enjoy the tidbit of Imladrien and Tinuvion. The piece I put up for amusement (and ideas) is basically bits and pieces of compound bow training in the woods with an expert compound bow shooter and bow mechanic. For some reason, I keep thinking that the song "Lado Animal" by Moenia would be the perfect soundtrack for that segment -- the lyrics certainly have a bit of appropriateness but there's something else about that song that just seems to fit it in my mind.

Wish me luck surviving the process of writing a (mock) grant proposal, keeping in an LB rated class, and generally staying in one piece! And maybe someday Imladrien and Tinuvion and the further (mis)adventures of some of the Knight-Errants will finally surface from the depths of my imagination...

Did Someone Breed my Bows?

Or did my friend just put 4 of his bows on my bow rack?

All I can say is... those Black Widows are kinda growing on me a bit, especially the little greybark PSR on the bottom with the longbow riser on it. Apparently my longbow shooting of late has been throwing off my recurve shooting pretty badly by introducing some strange torquing that's caused my arrows to kick up and fly nock-low. Odd and very distressing. I need to spend more time practicing and less time sitting in or preparing for classes rated LB.

Rated LB

Aside from 90% of the SNRE seminars that I was required to attend, I had yet to give any actual class here at UF an LB (lethally boring) rating. And now I am in a class truly worthy of the LB rating: Land tenure/administration. I was expecting so much more considering it is in the geomatics department, but alas, the only superlative it's earned so far is the LB rating. I'll handle thousands of fruit flies and ether any day over this class. I'm even much more willing to dissect formaldehyde-preserved cadavers than have to take a re-run of this class. Unfortunately, it is also probably the least painful of the dreaded humanities requirement required in my program because it doesn't have the indentured servant portion. Oh well, there's worse things than the ultimate lethally boring class. Maybe it'll get better once the class gets to the really cool stuff like natural disasters and carbon emissions.

Still My 'Mate

I've gotten my hands on some really awesome bows in the last several months, especially Sparrowhawk and a yet-to-be-named short recurve from River's Edge Recurves... but nothing is quite as comfortable as Sorondil-Telcontar, my little Chek-Mate Hunter I. Even with wooden arrows in fairly sad shape and not quite spined right, I can still hit the target or at least within a reasonably tight confidence interval.

And here's some gratuitous pictures from the field, including some weird part on a Serenoa repens and the vehicle from hell I have to drive to and from the parking lot. Thank goodness I haven't had to drive it to Austin Cary Forest!

Rangers and Knights

After a week from hell at UF involving writing up a mock grant proposal, grading lots of papers, baby-sitting undergrads and sitting through a certain class that must've been designed by a true sadist, I decided that I needed a weekend away from all things that require more than two or three brain cells.

First was the Traditional Bowhunters of FL (TBoF) Charity shoot. I completely forgot that to compete in the Longbow division, I had to shoot wooden arrows. I took Sparrowhawk and aluminum arrows. I shot Sparrowhawk remarkably well -- 8 misses out of 40, nearly all were me shooting over the target but with a perfect (or near-perfect) line. All in all, I couldn't complain about a 240/400 -- it was cold, rainy early on, and I barely shot at all for a week. Had this little oversight not been there, I would've taken a 1st in the women's longbow division, but I'm just as happy with a 5th-6th in the recurve division -- the top three were well in the high 300s and 4th was mid 300s. It was just a blast being with my buddies, enjoying time in the woods, and shooting well for the given conditions. Here's a few "highlights" -- the rest of the pictures are posted here.





We also went to the Hogtowne Faire, which is pretty much a huge SCA/Renaissance Fair type gathering. It was a real blast seeing friends there too and just watching fun stuff like jousts and medieval combat. After running around there, we just decided to hide out at Gator Bowmen to tinker around with some really sweet little short recurves. Here's the highlights (ie, the ones my camera didn't barf up too badly):

Long Shots, Semi-Unknown Yardage

This was probably about 35-40 yards based on pacing and a-priori data from the markers on the ground (ie, "I'm standing about halfway in between the two yellow stones").

This was around 40-45 yards, again from pacing and a-priori data (ie, "I'm somewhere between the red and white stones")

This was a 15 yard shot but I also managed to break another nock. Thank goodness the nocks for the Easton Legacy are relatively cheap and easy to replace! Unfortunately I did damage both arrows but I guess it's better than shattering one or both like I would've with the Equalizer in that kind of collision!

Random Bite-lings

Is it me, or am I just TA'ing a class that's inherently got a lot of terms that invoke heavy snickering? Think about it. The class I'm TA'ing is called Forest Mensuration. Cruising -- strip and line-plot. There's a vest specifically designed for this kind of work called a cruising vest. Truth is though, cruising vests are some of the best pieces of clothing ever designed -- I know I love fishing vests, but the cruising vest is a step up from the already wonderful fishing vest. Then there's DBH (diameter @ breast-height, ie, 4.5 ft or 1.37 m from the ground on the uphill side of the tree). I could probably go on and on about all the things in forest mensuration (or measurements if you can't see that term without laughing hard enough to cause a stroke) that cracks people up.

Nothing quite compares to having my freezer filled up with little packages of venison from a deer I killed. My friend was finally able to catch the butcher (who also doubles as a preacher and is thus almost impossible to catch) and put the meat where it belongs -- in my freezer and eventually my stomach.


Sparrowhawk, 22 yards while tired:

Dummy of the Day

I'll let you guess what happened. Suffice to say, I'm glad I have a large supply of compound arrows.

What's the Probability of This Happening?

How likely is it for someone to hit 4 clusters of 2 arrows like that from 20 yards away?