A recent (friends-locked) post in slobbit's journal has prompted me to think about the social dynamics I've been experiencing in the archery club. Despite the lack of a firm diagnosis, I'm fairly sure that I have an autistic spectrum disorder--most likely the variety known as Asperger's syndrome. And it shows in the way I interact with the others in the archery club--frequently I'm the only one shooting at the marks when everyone else is in the club's room, talking and socializing with each other. In short, I go to the club primarily for the sake of getting some archery practice and I see the socializing and everything else not directly related to archery only as perks, while many of the other members seem have more-or-less the opposite perspective. Not that they're wrong. Social networking (especially making new friends and affirming old bonds) has always been one of the most important aspects in archery training throughout history, and in some cultures it took the place occupied by football, basketball, baseball, and other similar games in modern Western culture. But I've always been bugged by the fact that I often feel an irrational irritation when I see the other members coming to the club without actually practicing archery, and I've only figured out now about how it dovetails specifically with how I perceive the world in general and the archery club in particular.

Too bad I don't have a "l337 archer" icon for this post. Maybe I should go and make one from the archery photographs I've taken.

Tags: personal

Nothing, to my way of thinking, is a better proof of a well-ordered mind than a man's ability to stop just where he is and pass some time in his own company.

Lucius Annaeus Seneca, philosopher (BCE 3-65 CE)

If you're in the DC area, this weekend Mekong River Textiles is having its open house. Ikats, batiks, shot silks, and sashiko fabrics in silk, cotton and hemp.

If you're a fabric fiend, you'll really love the selection.

If you're not a sewer or a quilter, they do carry ready-to-wear jackets, shawls, and scarves. This is the place where I got my Hmong jacket -- the reversible one with the batik and the elaborate cross-stitch.

It's an amazing little shop.

Current Music: Tracy Grammer - Hey Ho

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Did you know? I have a very strange tendency to get Arnold Toynbee and Edward Gibbon mixed up with each other when I'm talking about only one of them, attributing The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire to Toynbee and A Study of History to Gibbon more than half of the time. Even more strangely, I usually get them right when I'm talking about both of them (like now). The cause of this paradox remains a mystery to me.

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Tags: maniacs and morons and robber barons

Some weirdness I found today on the ancmed mailing list:

Florentine Renaissance football event called off in 2007 after bloody brawls in the field

and

Florentine Renaissance football matches back in play after a one-year hiatus

(Yes, they're talking about the same event, which is said to be "a mix of soccer, rugby, Greco-Roman wrestling, and bare-knuckle fighting.")

Title: Unconsidered Trifles [prologue]
Author: neotoma
Fandom: Marvel 1602
Characters: Carlos Javier, Hal McCoy
Rating: gen
Summary: In 1595, Carlos Javier loves the theater…
Warnings, Disclaimers: I don't own the characters. Marvel 1602 is the creation of Neil Gaiman and Andy Kubert
Word Count: 793
Notes: Written for harmonyangel's birthday/thesis completion celebration comm. starsandshield. I'm posting it here to remind myself to keep working on it; half done is not all done.
Status: In progress

( In 1585, Carlos Javier left Spain with several trunks, two menservants, and the interest of the Inquisition nipping at his heels. )

Tags: fic, hank mccoy, writing, xmen

There's a rerun of Troy on a local TV station tonight and it reminded me of the impressions I got when I first watched it: I don't like many of the changes and simplifications that the screenwriters have made to the story, but the casting choices are spot-on in many cases. Brad Pitt as the overbearing asshole Achilles? Check. Orlando Bloom as the brash but useless pretty boy Paris? Check. Sean Bean as Odysseus the fox? Check. The choreography of the battle scenes is also excellent, and only serious martial artists would be able to tell that most of the moves employed in them don't really make sense.

As far as my own writing goes, I passed the 45,000 words mark on the racing story today. That's half the 90k lower goal and just marginally less than half of the 100k upper goal. The story is probably going to end up being a bit longer than 100k words, however, since the progress in word count is not quite matched by progress along the plot. Come to think of it, who would want to read a racing story where the hero doesn't participate in his first race until more than halfway into the book?

Next time, may be I'm going to write about the stupid things that happened when I tried doing some pell-work with two short swords.