How Ironical

So, today was a good day to die… repeatedly. For the first time since September or so I fought. I was wretched, but got better as the practice went on. I feel great, with one nice sore spot from Mathieu LeCroix. In fact, I feel better than I have a right to expect given how long its been.

But that’s not the ironical part. There were two very ironical things I saw on the way tonight.

One, there’s finally no doubt that the bloom is off the Obama. For the first time since he was inaugurated, there were peace protesters at the corner they’re usually at. Now, I get the desire for peace, but my conversations with them tell me that they’re generally clueless moonbats who think Chamberlain handled Hitler better than Churchill. Of course part of that experience is the one guy who was protesting Iraq near the end of 2008 with the t-shirt that said Save Darfur, like that could happen without Army and Marine boots on the ground. Any, it was ironical that they’ve finally showed back up after over a year of waiting for Obama to do exactly what they wanted and he hasn’t.

Anyway, the second bit of irony is moderately connected, as I also passed by the Peace Nook, which is a store with a variety of interesting items and politics that one can guess by the name. They always have a flag flying from one of the parking meters in front of the store. They are usually appropriate flags, like rainbow ones for gay pride, and that sort of thing.

Today, the Peace Nook flew the Skull and Crossbones proudly.

Let me repeat that, the *Peace Nook* flew the Skull and Crossbones.

Yes, that Skull and Crossbones, that famed symbol of peace and love.

Again, I don’t mind pushing for peace, but get a freakin’ clue. History does tell us a thing or two, and some symbols have particular history.

PS This post has been dedicated to the peaceful spirit of Her Majesty Ealdormere.

Rebel Rebel

Time for another Liam-style post. I was chastised, by the way, for making too many points for a Liam-style post. Well, to heck with that, I’m a rebel. If I want to write an extra 42.857% than a the approved Liam-style, then I darn well will.

1. Had a good meeting with my adviser on Friday. I am to get a draft of my Kalamazoo paper by the end of the month. It’s a section of my dissertation adapted to a conference paper. Hopefully the other ten sections of the dissertation that are similar will work as conference papers or journal articles as well.

2. Speaking of writing, I promised a friend that I would write 50,000 words towards a novel in February. She wants to move NaNoWriMo to this month as opposed to November, and that seemed a good idea before I was going to Estrella. I have 2,000 written, so we’ll see.

3. Interestingly, I find when I write fiction I write more on my dissertation and vice versa. I wonder what that says about my research 🙂

4. I feel so pleasantly domestic the last few days. I just put in 8 trays of my normal spicy garlic jerky and 5 trays of an experimental jerk jerky. I also made butter chicken recently. I cheated on the spices, I’ll admit, but my usual method is to use mixes/boxes the first time or two, then start improvising

5. Speaking of writing again, one my favorite writers, Robert B. Parker, died recently. Spenser and Hawk are two of my favorite characters ever. I think Tom Selleck does an amazing job as Jesse Stone. I would love to see, by the way, a new Spenser series with Nathan Fillion.

6. Parker was also an inspiration to my writing, as I read years ago that his process was to start writing and then let things happen. He learned the story as he wrote it. That makes a ton of sense to me, as that’s how I’ve done a number of things like dungeon mastering, so that’s been how I’ve been dabbling with my fiction.

7. So many of my Estrella preparations are done. I am about halfway packed. It looks like this is my year to be the kingdom sherpa, as I’m picking up a bunch of stuff at Clothier’s this weekend.

8. 8. I forgot what 8. was for.

9. So I’ll be driving to Estrella on Sunday marking the end of a long long streak. This is not quite a streak on the order of Finnvarr at Pennsic, but it’s close. I can’t remember the last Super Bowl I didn’t watch. Super Bowl IX maybe? I’ll be on the road during the Super Bowl so I’ll listen on the road, but still…

10. I’m starting to get wayyyy more excited about Estrella than I expected. I haven’t fought much lately and I really need to feel my rattan on someone else’s helm. Practice on Wednesday (in tennis shoes because Rhauidhri has my boots as a pattern for a new pair), and then to WAR!!!!