I know I've been very busy... both with the SCA, my family, work and anything else. Compounded by the fact that since September of last year to the better part of early this year I've been constantly sick. All my life I've been pretty cold and flu free, but in the last 5-6 months my health has been horrible.

I spent some time correcting some problems, but the biggest problem for me is my fitness level.

Coronet was a bust for me. 3 rounds and I was out. I felt worn down, tired and a has been. I have only practiced 4 times this year, been to 2 tournaments, and in both, they were weak performances by me. I felt even worse than I did at Ursalmus.

However, despite what I hear, I know I need to practice. My body is still weak from both in activity and the lack of that important practice but I still felt very very once was.

I didn't feel like I had a bad event by any means, but I did face something that I wasn't hoping to face, which was the big huge step back in my abilities.

However that said there was a gem of a story that was shared with me this weekend that reminds me of my contributions as a fighter to the community.

A fighter chose to share a very dear and special story with me. He told me that many years ago I was his first fight in the first tournament he ever fought in. He was so frustrated with my defense as I blocked every shot he threw and final bested him. We both laughed a little, reminisce that event and thanked me for being a part of his fighting history. Years later he would select me as his pick in this year's tournament (another honor this weekend to be asked to the chiv side), he bested me with a smile on my face as well as his. Later that day he would be knighted and it left a very warm spot in my heart of how far he came.

I do need to practice. I know this and I will, but first thing I need to do is to get that fitness level back up.

-M

Unto the populous of Seagirt, Insula Magna and the Society,

I've been requested to share with everyone of news and sad to inform everyone the passing of Barak Ravensfuri, into Valhalla last night.

Details of his passing have been withheld by the request and wishes of the family. We ask that you respect those close to him, absolute privacy while matters are being sorted out. Details of the service and such are being arranged and in the coming days I will post those details as soon as I get more information.

In the meantime I send my heart out to his family and to those that were close to him. Our condolences go out to them and we ask you take whatever moment you would, to honor a great man who has passed from our realm.

He will be greatly missed. If you have questions regarding this matter, please feel free to direct them to Lady Orianna. She will also be accepting message for stories and condolences to the family. I will be posting details of services in the next couple of days as they get finalized.

Condolences and Regards,
Ming & Elina
Baron and Baroness of Seagirt.
&
Orianna (ladyorianna@gmail.com)

OMG OMG OMG OMG!!!!

I can't wait till June for this! ROFL. Okay now that I contained myself, this is apparently an oscar nominated picture Directed by Sergei Bodrov. It's supposed to be based on leading scholarly accounts and was filmed on the steppes. I AM SO EXCITED.

Now this is supposed to be the first of 3 movies, whether or not the other two come out, I'm totally looking forward to seeing this.



The official website is here:
http://www.mongolmovie.com/

-Ming

This is an overdue update to my fighting journal.

After 6 months of resting my shoulder I started up fighting again. I've practiced a little on my left and fought 3 practices on it. Turns out I'm alright with two weapons, but stick a shield in my right hand and all I can do is defend. Although I've had some good moments fighting left handed, I just can't throw complicated shots with it (yet).

Very frustrating, so I'm going back to fighting sword and shield right handed.

Wish me luck.

I don't plan to overdo it, so I'll switch off at practices to maximize my right shoulder.

By the way it feels great.

I don't have huge expectation at Daffodil, but if all things go well I hope to do well at Coronet. Either way, I hope to fight at my pre break levels soon.

-M

Sorry if you get this twice:

So looks like the campaigning begins... We've been keeping thing discrete for a long time, and slowly letting people know our intentions, but more candidates are coming out of the woodwork so we need to put our cards out and I had intended on doing this closer to the deadline, but now seemed like a good time to put up our website. I also added a comment and blog portion to it so people could write their comments or thoughts right out in the open.

It was actually quite an interesting exercise to write my Resume as I had been asked for it many times and finally I had no choice but actually write it out. Once I saw it all out in the open, I hadn't realized just how much service I had done. Over the years, people have told me how much I've done, but the gravity of it all appeared when I wrote it all out.

Anyhow you can find this website at the following link:

http://web.mac.com/terrylam/BB/Welcome.html

We look forward to hearing from everyone of course...

PS. Those of you who are not in the Barony on my LJ, if you feel like supporting us, please feel welcome to visit and you may also write to their Majesties or Highnesses which has a link on our web site. Every letter and support helps and we hope to serve in the capacity that people imagined that we are capable of.

Cheers
-M

For some of you the question on your mind is about to be answered. For some of you this might have been obvious or might have been encouraged by yourselves.

So, yes, we are going to be putting in our names for the next B&B of Seagirt.

We wanted to let our friends on here know that we are running for the office and we will be putting official word out at some point. We still need to submit our information to the official polling officer which will be Robin's replacement Seneschal.

We are hoping for strong support but one never knows how things will unfold. Our vision hasn't been completely mapped out, but we hope to honor James and Tangwystl of the position by carrying forward their hard work and incorporating our own vision with it.

I'm working on a website that will have our resumes that we intend on submitting and other information for people on how to show their support for us.

So if life wasn't interesting enough... the next couple of months are going to be very interesting indeed.

Wish us luck.

-M

PS. Thorin & Yrsa, I finally believe this is the right time to run... thanks for your encouragement in this decision.

PPS. If anyone has any sage advice, please feel free to post here or email me privately.

Just a quick update since my last post.

Been generally a low impact summer of fighting. Did mostly local events and avoided fighting when I could. I had to sit out Coronet for several reasons...

Just to update everyone, the two primary reasons were:

1) I could not fight in the main tourney because I would not be able to fulfill my duties if I had won (big if of course) with a child on the way

2) My shoulder is 95% well, but it's that last 5% that I keep fooling myself into fighting again and bringing it back down to 50%

Overall my shoulder is getting better... seems like 1% per week. I've been practicing with my left and that's been going well. I can generate power and my accuracy has been spot on, but the thing that I have not been able to do successfully is generate quick combos like I did with my right. This leads me to a conclusion which I believe Thorin pointed out to me which is my mechanics still needs work. I can generate power from a single shot, but recovering that and applying that to a second or even third needs to be improved at my core. This might be a good thing for me in the end to switch to left as it helps me see what I was doing wrong with my right.

I teach this to people all the time (switching sides) where it helps outline where they are doing things wrong.

When I do gear up again, it will likely mean a lot of carefully planned single shots rather than combinations from my left until I condition myself better.

Meanwhile, I am focused on other things, but SCA wise I have projects to do. I'll update some of the things that I've been doing in a few days.

I'm still around folks, and getting better everyday. It was good to see friends at Coronet this past weekend.

Cheers
-M

I did alright this weekend. I finished in 6th place and was the last squire standing. However it was bittersweet. A few of my fights were messy and odd. I didn't like the fact that there was tips and little things coming in, and in my final fight against Sir Sigurd, I apparently missed what looked like an obvious shot to my offside (at least from the videos I was looking at).
( Bite the bunny ear off first... )
-M

Robin is pregnant :)

We will be expecting a little one somewhere around November 28th.

Read more about it at her LJ elinakarsdottir

We are of course very very excited!!! As one of our household members mentioned, if we can't add more members to our household, we just grow them... another seedling for the treehouse :)

Cheers
-Ming

Shot this over the weekend. I've never uploaded to You Tube and not completely happy with the quality, so I'm trying to make it better on Google Video.

Anyhow, enjoy this clip at the least, or until I can figure out how to make a better quality version of this video.

Cheers
-M

There seems to be a slurry of rumours floating around us, my house, my friends.

Before anyone considers that any of these rumours are true, please take a moment, think about who might have said it and if you want clarification on such rumours, please contact me directly.

I can assure you that rumours are just that, rumours. If someone is out there to smear my character I'm sure that the truth will reveal itself.

If you have any concerns or questions to direct to myself, please feel welcome to.

-Ming