Like a lot of people, I'm a little perturbed by the recent change in TOS here so I've decided that I will no longer be updating this account, though at present I have no plans to delete it - I'm still active (after a fashion) over on Dreamwidth.

Please let me know if you're making the move to Dreamwidth too, as I'm trying to avoid duplication between the two sites in terms of who I'm following, both in terms of individual accounts and communities. I'd hate to lose track of anyone!

I have an assignment due in tomorrow, so of course I'm dicking around online instead. ;)

It's not too bad, I've done most of the work but just need to pull it together and then find some references to back up why I've done what I've done. It's all about using technology for learning, so I've been running an Instagram group with one of my classes and that's provided a lot of source material to talk about - they also gave me some written feedback about their experiences, since I'd deliberately chosen one of my smaller but more adept classes to do this with!

From conversations with other folks on my course, the general feeling seems to be that pretty much everyone is bored, not just me, so that's kind of a relief I guess? A number of the sessions seem to be 'research this while you're here and tell everyone else about it' which seems kind of lazy when used as a method repeatedly. Do some bloody teaching, earn your money! We're almost at the end of the first year, thank the elder gods, though I still have two observed teaching sessions to get through. Those are a pain, not because of doing the teaching but because of all the paperwork I have to provide justifying why I'm doing X rather than Y or Z, with references of course!

In terms of work, I'm rapidly heading towards the Easter break with just 2 weeks left - one of my classes finishes next week but the other two don't and I've also got exams to do for my own class and a few for other people. And then a couple of weeks off, coincidentally when my fencing club is also closed! *runs around waving her arms in the air*

I think I'm also about to make myself a little unpopular with my boss as we're heading towards the time of year when she timetables the classes for September onwards. As I'm sure you can imagine, there's not a massive queue of people wanting to teach on a Saturday morning and I'd kind of felt last year that it was my turn to do it. It didn't make much difference for me in terms of any other commitments, so why not? Because fencing competitions often seem to put women's foil on the Saturday, that's why not! Aaaargh. In the coming academic year there'll be at least 2 extra Saturdays I won't want to work and that means either finding extra dates to accommodate the replacement classes or finding someone to cover those dates but also hoping I don't have to cancel any because of sickness. Naturally, those competitions have also not yet finalised their dates for 2017-18 because why should they?

Also posted at my Dreamwidth account - happy to receive comments on either post.

Ugh, norovirus. Well, that was Saturday - I had lots of things planned for my class but spent pretty much all day in a small circuit between bed and toilet, which was not fun at all. I thought it was food poisoning at first, but on the rare occasions I come down with that (last time, it was eating yoghurt without checking the Best Before date), as soon as I puke I feel much better. This time, not so much. I literally couldn't keep anything down at all on Saturday and even drinking water was debatable at times.

So that means I need to try and find another Saturday to catch up that missed class, since most of the folks on it are paying for themselves, but that's a job for later this week when I can check which Saturdays the building is open. It also got me out of college tonight, because you're supposed to stay home for 48 hours, but I could have done without the reason for it!

In other news, I'm currently struggling a bit with finding good fanfic to read. I've been reading all sorts of stuff but the majority of it doesn't really strike me as good enough to rec and there's only been a few exceptions to that rule (since it's always lovely when someone whose writing you like gets sucked into your fandom, hello przed!). That ice-skating anime seems to have infected lots of people but I'm still catching up with Legend of Korra for the first time, so the chances of me getting that particular bug are slim to none.

However, I did stumble across some stonkingly good original fic and would like to recommend it - The Course of Honour by Avoliot. Lots of slow burn angsty arranged marriage stuff and updating regularly, currently 9 chapters in and still going strong. *sighs happily*

Also posted at my Dreamwidth account - happy to receive comments on either post.

Spent much of the morning throwing up, so ended up cancelling my Saturday class and spending much of the day in bed - this coincided nicely with two cycle races, one women's and one men's, so that was lovely. Of course, the women's got significantly less coverage (no surprises there!) and while it wasn't won by someone from the team I support, the winner was clearly the strongest woman in the race.

But this isn't about the race, it's about what happened next.

It's pretty common for riders to be met at the end of the race by family members, loved ones, as well as representatives of their team. However, I don't think I've ever seen anything quite like what happened this afternoon. The winning rider crosses the line, gets round to where a couple of people are waiting for her (maybe the woman was her mother, given the age difference) and her boyfriend immediately grabs her face and starts excavating her tonsils. It was real teenage 'this is my girlfriend' dominance behaviour. He couldn't have been more territorial if he'd peed on her leg afterwards.

It reminded me of that nonsense at the Rio Olympics where a male Chinese swimmer (diver?) gatecrashed his girlfriend's medal ceremony so he could propose to her.The woman just won something significant, back the hell off for two minutes! And that was all over the news with some people gushing about how 'romantic' it was, others (myself included) thinking about the kind of self-absorption required to think that was okay.

Also posted at my Dreamwidth account - happy to receive comments on either post.

I'm currently in my 4th trip around academia, having started a teaching qualification last September which is (alas) going to continue for another 18 months because it's technically 'part-time'. Which would be fine if I wasn't already bored out of my gourd by pretty much everything to date. I managed to get a student loan to pay for this course, since I'd never had one before, which pretty much means that it's free since the chances of me ever earning enough in the future to start paying it off aren't great.

Anyway, the course is run by a local college in conjunction with a local university (so at least the piece of paper I'll get at the end has a nice header!) and the first part of it at least seems to be serving as subsidised in-house training for their teachers who've been employed cheaply to teach a variety of (mostly) non-academic subjects. Most of it has been deeply mind-numbing, except for one exceptional session where I ended up being that gobby student who corrected the person up front because he'd come out with such utter BS I just couldn't not say something. And I know, yes, this is in character for me but I'd been trying so hard not to keep my trap shut and I couldn't help it. *sigh*

At least there's only an 80% attendance requirement, so that means if I get really hacked off (see last Monday) I can stay at home and binge-watch TV instead, thus using my time much more productively. As long as I pass the assignments and get a decent grade on my observations, neither of which should be a problem, it's just a case of doing my time. I'm reduced to crossing off sessions, like a prisoner scratching lines on a cell wall...

I have a tutorial today - another example of make-work sessions that actually don't really do anything productive but can count as 'face time' or whatever inane term is in vogue this year - and have had to fill in ridiculous amounts of paperwork in preparation for 20 minutes of a lecturer's time. I wonder if she will ask me what I was doing the other week instead of coming to class? I wonder if I will tell her the truth? ;)

Also posted at my Dreamwidth account - happy to receive comments on either post.

Okay, so time for a recap on yesterday's first competition - those of you reading the previous posts may recall that, in a moment of masochism, I'd signed up to do both the beginners (fencing less than 12 months) and intermediate (less than 3 years) categories and therefore committed myself to a day of jumping about and waiting about, not necessarily in that proportion. I'd been dosing myself up with cold medicine most of the week as I'd started sneezing and that seemed to work to keep me from coming down with something just in time for being inside a fencing mask for a couple of hours!

It was really nice having other folks from the club there after I'd pestered/begged persuaded them into signing up too, though the guy who was doing men's foil definitely had a tougher hill to climb - there were 4 times as many men as women signed up. Overall, it was mostly foil, a few men's epee but no women's epee at all and absolutely zero sabre, though apparently this is pretty common for this event since (according to my coach) people tend to come to sabre after trying the other two weapons first. I'm not sure whether the others enjoyed it as much as I did, so I guess we'll get a proper post-mortem on it when it's club night again on Thursday...

Anyway, there were 7 of us in the beginner women's foil, including 2 from a local university where they can apparently fence every day if they want to. I ended up 3rd in the pool anyway but lost in the semi to another student, so that was my first medal of the day. In this one, the two aforementioned students came first and second.

The intermediates turned out to be 5 of us, the four medallists from beginners and one other. I came 3rd in that pool too, having got the measure of one of the students (who I'd nicknamed Hoppy McStabbypants, as she pretty much relied on one attack, an odd hop-lunge combination) who only just beat me 5-4 this time. I also beat the fencer who'd beaten me in the beginner's semi 5-2, which I was very happy about. That pool position meant I was getting a medal anyway, but I won my semi fight this time (15-12, so it was a pretty close one) and got into the final, I did quite well for the first 3 minute period, finishing that just 9-7 down, but then didn't get back into it after that pause and lost 15-7.

It ended up with the same woman winning both beginners and intermediate, though neither victory was by any means a walkover, which also means she can't enter either competition again next year. I was a bit underwhelmed by how she yelled if she got a point against me, which I thought was a bit sad given the level of the competition - dude, it's a regional low-level competition, not the Olympics! I'm sure it was meant to intimidate me, but I just thought it was kind of pathetic.

After that, I went home with my medals and practically inhaled a greasy cheese-laden pizza, as I'd barely eaten anything all day, and then fell into my nice warm bed with a book. And now I ache all over, but not that much more than I usually do after a club night. All in all, I'm pretty happy with how I did and also that the work I've been putting in at the gym in terms of my overall stamina paid off - the issue in my final fight was with my fencing (loss of focus, I think, as much as a skill issue), rather than me puffing like a steam train, which would have been the case even a couple of months ago!

The overall verdict? Yes, I think I'll compete again but it's about finding the right event so I get more practice fighting people rather than getting annihilated early on. More practice first, though, and more time in the gym.

Also posted at my Dreamwidth account - happy to receive comments on either post.

Sorry, this blog is probably going to be quite fencing-heavy for a while now. *shrugs* For some reason I'm finding it hard to concentrate on books and nothing has really grabbed me, while other than the picfor1000 challenge I've signed up for again, no writing is going on. I've started booking my trip to Finland this summer, so perhaps more on that later?

So, an update on the club competition - my team lost by one hit. I'd been told it was close but hadn't realised quite how close it was! I could have been sharing the very ugly team trophy this time around (and yes, it's really hideous, it's a glass thing of indeterminate shape rather than a proper cup or something) if not for that one hit.

The regional comp is now a week and a day from now and I've finally succeeded in my quest to get some of my fellow newbies to enter too. I'd been badgering them for weeks, as I didn't really want to go on my own (not that I wouldn't, but I'd rather have company!) and finally a combination of pleas and pestering has carried the day. So there's going to be 4 of us in all, maybe even 5 if someone else gets his arse in gear in time. \o/

Of course, since a foil competition is coming up soon, our coach decides that last night was an ideal time to start teaching us epee instead. Which is basically 'where would you like to stab your opponent today and it's okay if he stabs you at the same time, it totally still counts'. None of this ridiculous right-of-way and who attacked first business, so much easier to referee in that you just see whose light goes on. I'd been thinking about doing epee some time this year anyway, since there seem to be a lot more competitions, but I wasn't really thinking quite yet!

Anyway, more news after the competition next weekend. ;)

As mentioned above, I've also started booking stuff for my trip to Finland in the summer. As well as going to Helsinki for WorldCon, I've booked a hiking trip beforehand (including bear watching) and then a few days in Turku as well. So far I've booked internal flights and my Turku and Helsinki hotels, so just the main flight and Turku-Helsinki train to go. Though at the moment July seems a long way away and I'm currently trying to decide if I want to go anywhere before then, even if just for a few days.

Also posted at my Dreamwidth account - happy to receive comments on either post.

Yesterday, it was our club competition, which was a new and interesting experience for me. I realised that one of the reasons I'm enjoying fencing is that it's just about me, rather than me-as-part-of-a-team which had been my main experience of sport before - I'd also played tennis before, but only on a casual basis, no real competition. But while yesterday was technically a team competition (of which more shortly), it was also about me fighting the other beginners - three of them, anyway, since there were only four teams - as well as being part of a team.

We're a three-weapon club, so we have folks who fence foil (like me, though I'm probably going to try at least epee at some point), epee and sabre, with some fencing all three though most folks have a preference. The competition was for randomly-chosen teams of three with one person fencing each weapon. There's a coin toss to decide who gets to choose order of fencers in each bout and all the teams fence each other, with the first match being first to 5 hits, the second match first to 10 and the final being first to 15. So, for example, the final match we fought, our first fencer lost 5-2, I fought next and put us back in the lead at 7-10, and then our final fencer fought and we lost 15-13 overall.

And then there's some arcane calculations that decide which team has won overall, which I won't try and explain since I don't really get it. Anyway, we won two of our matches but lost the third and came second even though we beat the team that won. I just wish there'd been a couple more teams, since I could happily have fought a few more people!

I'd decided that the best defence was a good offence and had been fighting quite aggressively all the way through, so now have the bruises to prove it. I have a particularly fine mark on my upper sword arm which I think will be with me for a while and another couple on my legs. I know I probably wouldn't have got away with it with more experienced fighters (so that's going to be different for the real competition in a few weeks) but it was definitely effective, if only in putting the wind up the others.

The regional competition is a month away, so more time at the gym and more practices between now and then, not to mention that I'm also still trying to get a couple of other folks to enter that one too, so I'm not wandering in there on my own. Not that this is going to stop me, but it'd be nice to have company...

Also posted at my Dreamwidth account - happy to receive comments on either post.

I'm pretty much still exclusively reading SF and Fantasy, with the occasional non-fiction book thrown in (but very occasional) and these are the best of what I read in 2016:

Lagoon by Nnedi Okorafor, a first contact novel set in Nigeria

Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee

The Obelisk Gate by NK Jemisin (though you need to read The Fifth Season first)

A Gathering of Shadows by VE Schwab

Archivist Wasp by Nicole Kornher-Stace

Conspiracy of Ravens by Lila Bowen

Updraft by Fran Wilde, which finally came out in paperback in the UK

City of Blades by Robert Jackson Bennett

Uprooted by Naomi Novik, which subsequently went on to win the Nebula and World Fantasy Award

The Silver Tide and The Iron Ghost, both by Jen Williams

There is also ongoing love in my heart for Saga, Ms Marvel and Unbeatable Squirrel Girl.

More detailed commentary is available at my Booklikes blog if you're interested in any of the above.

Meanwhile, on the idiot box, this is how it falls out at the moment...

Still watching (though in some cases massively behind): Brooklyn Nine Nine, Elementary, iZombie, DC's Legends of Tomorrow, Arrow, Vikings, Lucifer

Got bored and/or annoyed and wandered off from: Sleepy Hollow, Blindspot, How to Get Away With Murder, Empire, The Blacklist, Jane the Virgin

Unexpectedly enjoying: The Good Place (and I usually loathe US 'comedy', so that's saying something) and Pitch (even though I know less than nothing about baseball!)

Happy to discuss any of the above in the spoiler-laden world of comments!

Also posted at my Dreamwidth account - happy to receive comments on either post.

An update to this post: My boss has kindly rearranged my class schedule so I can enter the regional beginners competition in February, so that's going to be my first ever experience of fencing outside the club environment. I'm trying to get my fellow newbies to enter too, so I'm not completely alone there. I've decided to bite the bullet and enter both the beginners and intermediate categories, as it's only a little more expensive and I figure every bit of experience helps!

We have our club competition in a couple of weeks, so at least I'll get an idea of how it all works before rolling off somewhere for the real thing. That should be fun, as it's a 3-weapon random team competition. Us newbies are fencing foil and we get paired with two other folks (one fencing epee and one sabre) at random, best team all-round performance wins the thing.

Like most sports, I guess, I go through phases of thinking I'm getting better and then realising I'm possibly not. I don't have much of a frame of reference since it's been a while since I played organised sports and then it was team sport rather than something individual. In the last practice before Christmas, I ended up fencing one of the coaches and it was pretty brutal - I kept going, though, even though it was all but hopeless on my part and did eventually score a point off him! And then I quit the match, because I was knackered and the experience wasn't going to get any better (for me, at least). ;)

Also posted at my Dreamwidth account - happy to receive comments on either post.