More Practice With Xolotl

 

Escape Room and Three Birthdays

Aside from our intrepid ultra-tall explorer, none of the Fellowship of the Apex Predators had ever done an escape room before.  It was quite the adventure teaming up with such powerful forces of brainiacs to pull off the mission in the Escape Room on I-Drive in Orlando. We were also celebrating our fearless co-founder's birthday and had two belated celebrations in the process.  

We finished with just over 90 seconds remaining of our hour to solve the puzzle! 

And then there was dinner afterwards with a few extra members joining us from our birthday girl's family!

 

USA Archery Indoor Nationals 2024 2/n

 These are courtesy of the wonderful staff at Easton-Newberry.

And then I also had a bit of fun today on my "weather day" with Anduril, Flame of the West... I did a bit of surgery on it to make it a little more comfortable to shoot as part of a brief reset phase before I return to my regularly scheduled program. 

USA Archery Indoor Nationals 2024 1/n

 I survived the 2024 USA Archery Indoor Nationals! Score-wise, it was a lackluster performance to put it mildly.  In terms of enjoyment and fulfillment, it was probably the best Indoor Nationals I have ever done. I shot with some of the finest people ever, including a fellow traditional archer who loves Tolkien, a good-humored Olympic recurve archer, and a fellow geek on the next target.

The lesson from the weekend: Albuterol, Prednisone, and archery DO NOT mix! It's even worse when caffeine (after a few months of abstinence) gets thrown into the mix. I learned that the hard way as my brain and my eyes were spinning like a cartoon. That being said, I was pleasantly surprised to see most of my arrows actually stayed on the paper other than maybe 1-2 arrows the entire weekend. The other lesson: while cough drops are amazing for controlling coughing, they also wreak havoc on the digestive system, and these were even with the non-sugar-free ones.  Luckily, I didn't have to deal with digestive issues during the tournament! 

Florida Archery Association State Indoor 2024 and Xolotl Update

 Pictures were fairly sparse from this state indoor, but I got a few. Finished the weekend with a 747/1200, which was pretty good considering I spent a lot of mental energy trying NOT to cough my brains out on the first day and getting used to awkward lighting. That being said, I did very well for a less familiar venue than Easton-Newberry! The second day was a much stronger performance with me just falling short of 400/600 at 396/600. Now here's for preparing for the USA Archery Indoor Nationals!

And then there's work on Xolotl, this time with a lighter, more cutting-oriented blade instead of the HiJinx blade. I actually find the lighter blade much easier for me to drive effectively, and whew, it gave me the willies seeing what it did to the cardboard boxes in short order!

Remember, do NOT attempt this at home without proper containment or a large, open space!

Meet Xolotl

 I am starting with a warning... Do NOT attempt this at home without appropriate safety measures!

Xolotl is an ant-weight Fingertech Viper Kit horizontal spinner. Currently, I'm using a heavy HiJinx-inspired blade, although I also have the option of using a lighter weapon.  I have a lot of work to go with refining Xolotl, including working on my driving as well as giving it a more appropriate aesthetic to fit the Aztec god of fire and lightning as well as a psychopomp. I still have Antlash, but it's now got a new driver who will hopefully drive it to glory and emulate its heavy-weight namesake, Whiplash!

Robot Ruckus 2023

 This was my very first robot combat competition, and although I lost all of my fights with Antlash the Tikbalang, I had tons of fun learning what it's like to fight with live opponents. I also had the opportunity to strike a knight with an actual sword.

And then there were the fights. My first fight was against Nibbler, an eggbeater drum. Suffice to say, while I got a solid lift and had some good control moments, I also got destroyed pretty heavily.

I also had the opportunity to play with plastic antweight robots and have a little battle with Andrea Gellatly of Witch Doctor. It was a pretty back and forth fight!

My next opponent was in the losers bracket, where I faced Flashbang. I had some decent control moments and grabbed my opponent, but again, I got taken apart pretty well.

My final fight was against Space Junk, a fellow Viper Kit robot but with the vertical spinner instead of the lifter. On one hand, I lasted three minutes against my opponent. On the other hand, well, I couldn't do much because Antlash was pretty much on its final legs!

Here is the driver of Space Junk, who at least didn't destroy me right away!