October 17, 2003
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WEBSITE OF THE WEEK
With Halloween coming up soon, the old urban legends will resurface in conversation, any you may find yourself wondering, “Is that really true?” Or, maybe you won’t. In any case, this site is a huge database of urban legends covering every category, from Halloween to Disney (and yes, ONE of the “obscene images” rumors is actually true). They’ll tell you if the rumor is fact or fiction (or indeterminate), as well as provide you with some background on the urban legend. Have fun!
Previous Websites of the Week:
The Deadly Follies of Stick Figure Warning Man and Family
Jennifer Government: Nation States
Cannot Find Weapons of Mass Destruction
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WARNING: This is going to be a long post. I seem to be stuck in a Catch 22. My posts seem to be getting longer, which means they take more time to write, and so I want to give as many people as possible the chance to read each one. Therefore, I don’t post every day because I know not everyone is on Xanga at the same time. However, it seems that if I don’t post every day, I lose readers. Does anyone else out there have the same problem? Anyways, I’m going home for a few days starting tomorrow. I have apre-written post that I’ll put up on Sunday, and then I won’t post again until at least Tuesday (and that goes for my quiz page as well).
Tuesday’s fencing practice was weird. First off, Dave (the instructor/coach) was wearing a Pirates of the Caribbean T-shirt, which just made me laugh, mostly because he doesn’t seem like the type of person who would go for swordfighting movies because it’s “not real fencing.” Actually, most good swordfighter movies are based off real fencing (In fact, I started learning fencing while taking a stage combat workshop), but they’re obviously staged to be as grandiose and dramatic as possible. And yes, there are some moves in stage/movie swordfighting that are not real fencing moves. One of the most common of these is a large, circular “parry” (and I don’t remember what it’s called, but I wish I did). You’ve most likely seen it in something, because it’s used in almost every swordfighter movie. It’s not a real fencing move (a parry like that would leave your body/target area undefended for too long; don’t get me wrong, there are circular parries in fencing, but not that big; a good circular parry should be about the circumference of a tennis ball). It’s occurred to me that I should probably explain more about fencing (various types, vocabulary, etc), and so that’s the pre-written post that I’ll put up on Sunday. Right now, I’m just going to talk about Tuesday’s practice.
Typically at fencing practice we spend the first half of practice learning two or three new moves (which are usually variants of a single move), then the second half “bouting” against each other. First off, I fenced against Dave-and lost. I actually parried well and counterattacked (I had this problem before where I would parry, but not counterattack, which you need to do), but he would always use some advanced parry that I haven’t learned yet. This put his blade at a weird angle that I didn’t know how to parry, and he was able to successfully counterattack. Next, I tried facing Cherie, a friend of mine who’s left-handed. I’ve tried fencing against her before and I could never win. We both have about equal skill, but left-handed fencers generally have an advantage over right-handed fencers (mostly because they’re used to fighting right-handed fencers, whereas right-handed fencers are only used to fighting against other right-handed fencers). This time, I finally beat her (although it wasn’t easy). My final bout was the weird one, mostly because it lasted so long that I was able to analyze my opponent’s moves and try formulating strategies. I started out trying to use straight, simple lunges and beats, but my opponent (I don’t know his name, but he’s another beginner) kept using a bunch of weird elaborate moves to deflect my blade while counterattacking me at the same time. After a few rounds of getting hit, I realized that what he was doing looked more like stage combat than actual fencing. I then decided, “Two can play that game. If stage combat is what he wants, stage combat is what he’ll get.” When we began again, I focused less on control and just tried to fence as dramatically as I could. It worked. I started landing hits and scoring against him. Eventually, he caught on to what I was doing, and adjusted his style to overpower mine. I then switched tactics, using simple, real, and not-as-dramatic lunges and parries. This caught him off-guard, and I was able to score more hits. After a while, he caught on once again. At that point, he held his blade low, so that it pointed at the floor. I wasn’t really able to formulate a solid strategy against this, because I couldn’t beat it out of the way, and if I tried to straight lunge, he would do one of his dramatic parries and counterattack. The only thing I could to was to make my lunge as strong as possible in order to break through the parry (which you can do). However, I did score the last hit (I have no idea who won because we weren’t keeping track of points).
Wednesday I had to go to another movie for my History of Cinema class. This time it was Stagecoach, made in 1939, directed by John Ford, and starring John Wayne and Claire Trevor.
I’ve never liked westerns a whole lot, mostly because they seem racist and silly to me (the only movie close to a western that I like isn’t even technically a western, and that’s Back to the Future Part III). Apparently, this was the movie that made John Wayne a star. I never understood John Wayne’s appeal, although I had a friend in high school who was obsessed with him. The only parts of his movies I’ve seen are the end of True Grit (which Marisa and I concluded was a strange movie), the end of The Searchers (during which I ranted to my mom about the amount of racism in westerns), and the beginning of some movie where John Wayne is in the cavalry (I have no idea what it’s called). All of these were made in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, when John Wayne was getting on in years. He looks so young in Stagecoach it’s weird. He also hadn’t developed his persona that early on (so he doesn’t say “pilgrim” or put weird pauses at the end of his sentences, at least not much). The only character that got really annoying was the driver of the stagecoach (the actor was also the voice of Friar Tuck in the Disney version of Robin Hood). I was surprised to discover that there were shots that I actually liked. Granted, they were just the exterior longs shots of the stagecoach traveling across the desert (i.e. no character action or anything), but I liked them, in a weird way. The other thing that surprised me was that the guys in the room with me didn’t pick up on hints for later plot points that I thought were very obvious (if you’ve seen it, you’ll know what I’m talking about). It was an immense relief that silly as it may be (so silly it sometimes borders on “charming naïveté”), it wasn’t boring (the final scene could’ve used a bit more lighting, though). As for racism, I think there was actually more racism towards Hispanics than towards Native Americans , but then again, the Native Americans (who were all played by Italians and stuntmen, I think) don’t really have any characterization; they just attack the stagecoach (Although I’m not sure why. You’d think they’d have more worthwhile things to do. However, their being pissed off at white people is very much justified. I’d be pissed at them too. Actually, I do have some Ottawa ancestry, but you wouldn’t know by looking at me). As usual, everyone in the room started heckling, but it was actually enjoyable this time (as opposed to previous times, when we were heckling the movie just to stay awake). At one point we were all reminded of the Oregon Trail computer game, which we proceeded to discuss pleasantly. Then we all wanted to go play Oregon Trail, since none of us has played it in over ten years. After that we resumed heckling, but it was fun.
Oh, I learned today that the hill that Denison is situated on actually has a name, or two names, to be precise. I found the names on a map in an old book (written in 1931) about the history of Denison. Apparently, the East Quad is situated on Prospect Hill, and the rest of campus (except Lower Quad, which isn’t on the hill at all) is on the Hill of Science. Could it be any cheesier?
It’s also my dad’s birthday today. He’s 53.
Well, this post is long enough so I think I’ll end it. I’ve got some things in development right now that I’d like to share with you soon, including concept drawings for my comic characters and a photograph tour of Denison. Bye!
