About two months ago I started an archery course, as part of task #68. Signing up with South Leeds Archers for a six-week beginners course, the first of the year, I thought I'd consider the task completed when I'd finished the course, not just after the first lesson.
Eight weeks later, archery is over, done and dusted, and all that jazz. What have I learned from it?
1. How to string a recurve bow.
This is harder than it looks, partially because it's counterintuitive. Fitting the limbs to the body is also counterintuitive, because they go on the wrong way 'round. When New World continent-conquering heroes had run out of bullets, they picked up the bows of their fallen enemies, and promptly took their own eyes out because they didn't understand the technicalities of recurve bows, and I can see why. But, get your head around the whole "you're doing it backwards" thing, and it's fine.
2. Consistency is everything.
Seriously, for three weeks it was all about "get your arrows in a good grouping without thinking about the golds". Then we moved onto using sights, which changed the grip and position, and that really threw me for a week. But, they're right. Concentrate on getting the arrows in the same spot, every time, then we can work on moving where that spot is. Changing your position on the bow, even a tiny bit, can make a huge difference to where the arrow will strike. I spent a week not realising that I should be touching the bow string into my nose and under my chin, not just under my chin; having two reference points is a huge help.
3. This is a survival skill.
Someone put a picture of a squirrel up on a target one week. It freaked me out a little. Reminders that really, this is a method of killing something did make me take a step back, because I'm not mad on the whole taking life away thing (I get guilt killing greenfly on my roses, which probably makes me some sort of big girly wuss). There is a huge element of skill involved in this, and it's skill I like to have, but the fundamental reasons for having the skill in the first place is something I have to think about.
4. Archers are nice people.
Generally, yes, people who carry weapons are quite nice to other people who carry weapons. The South Leeds Archers are fun people to be around, although social skills aren't necessarily a high priority. Not unlike geeks, really.
5. Arrows hurt.
Dropping the arrow off the guide rail onto your hand makes you go "ow". Doing it twice in quick succession gives you something that looks like fang marks and bruises that'll last a week on the back of your hand just above the thumb. Forgetting to put a bracer on your arm and then not holding the bow quite right means you'll get a bruice on your forearm that stings a bit. Not wearing finger tabs means your fingerprints will be worn off by the end of the session and you'll spend the next week wondering why the skin on your fingers is flaking off. Thankfully, nobody shot me, so injury was restricted to those things.
6. What all those bristly bits on pro bows are.
Stablisers. They're there to add weight to the bow, to make it move less when you're holding it. Of course, you have a fine balancing act between the amount of weight you need to provide inertia, and the amount you can hold without giving way. I added a stabliser and my grouping became much tighter; they are useful things to have.
7. How these things are scored.
It can be nuts complicated. It can also be very simple. Decide early on which way you'd like it to be.
8. Yellow = gold.
No matter how many times you call it yellow, and no matter how much it looks like a primary colour, someone will always correct you and call the centre circles the gold.
9. I enjoy the sense of peace.
You have to concentrate when shooting. Really concentrate. I would have enjoyed it more, I think, if there weren't two kids on the course constantly talking (or arguing with their Dads about how much money they'd get for hitting the target). However, in the brief moments where they were keeping quiet I could feel my concentration narrowing to a fine focal point, just in front of the arrow tip or on the other side of the sight, and there was an almost zenlike quality to those moments which I enjoyed. Concentrating at that level for any amount of time was very therapeutic and I really appreciated those moments when they came. Invariably, those moments came on shots where I hit the gold. It felt right.
So, that's that. I enjoyed doing it, and it's a skill I appreciated learning, but I think I'm done with archery for the time being. I'll be glad to get my Friday evenings back, and not have to keep an eye on the weather (out of a six week course, two of those weeks were rained off and one cut short) quite so much. I may go back to it, and if I get the chance to shoot I'll certainly keep my eye in, but for the time being I'm done.
Unfortunately, I'm putting task 3 on hiatus. I'm not keeping up with my photo-a-day thing, and so I might have to change it to "take 365 photos that represent a year's worth of shots over the course of the experiment". We'll see; I might pick it up again where I left off, but the "consecutive days" element will probably fall by the wayside.
Currently running habitual tasks: #3 (94/365, stalling), #13, #26, #37 (2/<34), #60 (11/50), #68, #66 (61/250), #87, #88, #100 (3/>3)
Currently running exploratory tasks: #38 (1/18), #17 (1/54+), #57 (1/9+)
Currently running growing tasks: #41, #52
Completed: 9
Remaining: 92
Showing posts with label #3. Show all posts
Showing posts with label #3. Show all posts
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Day 90, 040609
I have been remarkably remiss in updating the blog over the past month. Very poor indeed, in fact.
Just about keeping up to date with the photo-a-day malarky (task #3), although I've not uploaded all of this week yet. Exercise has fallen by the wayside a little after an attempt at a very long walk, swimming pools and libraries have stalled somewhat, although I hope to pick them up again in a couple of days, and I'm being a bit rubbish about the plants; they're surviving, but I've not planted them out in growbags yet, and if this is all the summer we're going to get, they won't really do much.
On the other hand, I've got one more archery session to do, I've done four Exposure Leeds events, chocolate making continues apace and I'm doing some filming next week too. I'm keeping on top of the eat more fruit, remember breakfast and make lunch things, and plans are well underway for "get gently squiffy with as many friends as possible" later in the summer. My volunteering task has a serious number of contenders all clamouring for attention and going walking with Matt might happen before the end of the month.
Details, then.
Archery has gone well; the beginners sessions end tomorrow, and then we have to decide whether to join the club or not. As much as I have enjoyed the sessions I think this will be the last one I go to, at least for the forseeable future - I have too many other things going on, and the equipment is sufficiently expensive to require a "do I really need this?" conversation with my bank account (and would turn it into a "buy stuff" task, which I want to avoid). The element of calm archery provokes is therapeutic, but to do it justice I need to think hard about my reasons and have suitable kit, and I just don't feel it quite enough.
Exposure Leeds number 4 (task #85 was last night, and my last one for the purposes of 101Things. Unlike the archery, though, this one will be carried on way past the paramters set out here; I have thoroughly enjoyed every single one of the sessions that we've had. Last night we had a talk from Nick Efford about high dynamic range (HDR) postprocessing using Photomatix Pro, or whatever other tools there might be out there. I had a little tinker with Photomatix using Nick's suggestions, generating pseudo-HDR from single RAW files - really you should have a sequence of them with different EVs, but you can fake it as long as it is a RAW - and came up with one I'm really quite happy with.
Pardon the watermarks, but it's because I've not coughed up for the software yet! Speaking as someone who has gone "No! No! No!" in the style of Ian Paisley whenever HDR is mentioned in sensible conversation, last night opened my eyes considerably. It's not all about garish effects and nightmare saturations, but more about bringing closer the massive variance in contrast viewing between what we see and what technology is capable of displaying. Shame much of the stuff on Flickr is all about the former, really.
We were doing a print swap, too; bring a print, swap it for someone elses. It worked, too - someone took away my print from Spurn Head, I picked up someone's print of mountains.
After the HDR session was me speaking (again!) on "What Next for Social Documentary in Leeds", a somewhat cumbersome title but one that carries significance. We have a great local history scene here with plenty of resources available, but one or two could be improved upon... and this is where one of my volunteering projects comes in (#20). I don't want to talk about this too much at the moment because it's still a bit fragile, but I'm writing a scoping document as to how we could go forwards with this in the community (with local group backing, too), and soliciting opinions from the communities I would like to become users of whatever I come up with. Yes, it'll be Web-based, and it'll involve the Google Maps API, but before I start tinkering with code I want to get a decent project spec done and approved by the other parties involved at this stage.
Chocolates continue apace; I was asked to come up with a chocolate "involving blackcurrant and chilli". So I did;
They're a layer of chili jam (boil 3 chopped red chillies in 200ml cider vinegar for 15 minutes, strain, add 3g of sugar per ml of liquid, bring to a rolling boil for 2 mins and add 50ml of liquid pectin, take off the heat, leave for a minute, then pour onto a sheet of bake-o-glide with something to stop it pouring off the edges) and a layer of blackcurrant ganache (130g double cream, 25g glucose syrup, 70g blackcurrant pureé, 500g white chocolate, boil the cream and glucose, pour onto the chocolate, leave for at least a minute before you start sirring, then stir into an emulsion and add the blackcurrants), dipped in chocolate and with drizzled coloured chocolate on top. Things I need: caramel rulers and a guitar cutter. The rulers are reasonably ok to get, but the guitar is a huge thing that I don't have space to store.
In recent weeks I've also done many things not on the list: attended BarCamp (brilliant, frankly), walked from Marsden to Cragg Vale (was supposed to be Hebden Bridge, but we had water and feet issues and needed a minor rescue), am getting involved in podcasting with a very nice chap called Daag (details will be forthcoming), and had T&C's birthday party. Enormous fun! I made a cake, which all went:
and we're hoping to have a repeat event later in the year.
I finish another thing tomorrow, next week I get to see my delightful lady wife's play on the stage (#82), and things continue apace!
Currently running habitual tasks: #3 (90/365), #13, #26, #37 (2/<34), #60 (11/50), #68, #66 (40/250), #87, #88, #100 (3/>3)
Currently running exploratory tasks: #38 (1/18), #17 (1/54+), #57 (1/9+)
Currently running growing tasks: #41, #52
Completed: 7
Remaining: 94
Just about keeping up to date with the photo-a-day malarky (task #3), although I've not uploaded all of this week yet. Exercise has fallen by the wayside a little after an attempt at a very long walk, swimming pools and libraries have stalled somewhat, although I hope to pick them up again in a couple of days, and I'm being a bit rubbish about the plants; they're surviving, but I've not planted them out in growbags yet, and if this is all the summer we're going to get, they won't really do much.
On the other hand, I've got one more archery session to do, I've done four Exposure Leeds events, chocolate making continues apace and I'm doing some filming next week too. I'm keeping on top of the eat more fruit, remember breakfast and make lunch things, and plans are well underway for "get gently squiffy with as many friends as possible" later in the summer. My volunteering task has a serious number of contenders all clamouring for attention and going walking with Matt might happen before the end of the month.
Details, then.
Archery has gone well; the beginners sessions end tomorrow, and then we have to decide whether to join the club or not. As much as I have enjoyed the sessions I think this will be the last one I go to, at least for the forseeable future - I have too many other things going on, and the equipment is sufficiently expensive to require a "do I really need this?" conversation with my bank account (and would turn it into a "buy stuff" task, which I want to avoid). The element of calm archery provokes is therapeutic, but to do it justice I need to think hard about my reasons and have suitable kit, and I just don't feel it quite enough.
Exposure Leeds number 4 (task #85 was last night, and my last one for the purposes of 101Things. Unlike the archery, though, this one will be carried on way past the paramters set out here; I have thoroughly enjoyed every single one of the sessions that we've had. Last night we had a talk from Nick Efford about high dynamic range (HDR) postprocessing using Photomatix Pro, or whatever other tools there might be out there. I had a little tinker with Photomatix using Nick's suggestions, generating pseudo-HDR from single RAW files - really you should have a sequence of them with different EVs, but you can fake it as long as it is a RAW - and came up with one I'm really quite happy with.
Pardon the watermarks, but it's because I've not coughed up for the software yet! Speaking as someone who has gone "No! No! No!" in the style of Ian Paisley whenever HDR is mentioned in sensible conversation, last night opened my eyes considerably. It's not all about garish effects and nightmare saturations, but more about bringing closer the massive variance in contrast viewing between what we see and what technology is capable of displaying. Shame much of the stuff on Flickr is all about the former, really.
We were doing a print swap, too; bring a print, swap it for someone elses. It worked, too - someone took away my print from Spurn Head, I picked up someone's print of mountains.
After the HDR session was me speaking (again!) on "What Next for Social Documentary in Leeds", a somewhat cumbersome title but one that carries significance. We have a great local history scene here with plenty of resources available, but one or two could be improved upon... and this is where one of my volunteering projects comes in (#20). I don't want to talk about this too much at the moment because it's still a bit fragile, but I'm writing a scoping document as to how we could go forwards with this in the community (with local group backing, too), and soliciting opinions from the communities I would like to become users of whatever I come up with. Yes, it'll be Web-based, and it'll involve the Google Maps API, but before I start tinkering with code I want to get a decent project spec done and approved by the other parties involved at this stage.
Chocolates continue apace; I was asked to come up with a chocolate "involving blackcurrant and chilli". So I did;
They're a layer of chili jam (boil 3 chopped red chillies in 200ml cider vinegar for 15 minutes, strain, add 3g of sugar per ml of liquid, bring to a rolling boil for 2 mins and add 50ml of liquid pectin, take off the heat, leave for a minute, then pour onto a sheet of bake-o-glide with something to stop it pouring off the edges) and a layer of blackcurrant ganache (130g double cream, 25g glucose syrup, 70g blackcurrant pureé, 500g white chocolate, boil the cream and glucose, pour onto the chocolate, leave for at least a minute before you start sirring, then stir into an emulsion and add the blackcurrants), dipped in chocolate and with drizzled coloured chocolate on top. Things I need: caramel rulers and a guitar cutter. The rulers are reasonably ok to get, but the guitar is a huge thing that I don't have space to store.
In recent weeks I've also done many things not on the list: attended BarCamp (brilliant, frankly), walked from Marsden to Cragg Vale (was supposed to be Hebden Bridge, but we had water and feet issues and needed a minor rescue), am getting involved in podcasting with a very nice chap called Daag (details will be forthcoming), and had T&C's birthday party. Enormous fun! I made a cake, which all went:
and we're hoping to have a repeat event later in the year.
I finish another thing tomorrow, next week I get to see my delightful lady wife's play on the stage (#82), and things continue apace!
Currently running habitual tasks: #3 (90/365), #13, #26, #37 (2/<34), #60 (11/50), #68, #66 (40/250), #87, #88, #100 (3/>3)
Currently running exploratory tasks: #38 (1/18), #17 (1/54+), #57 (1/9+)
Currently running growing tasks: #41, #52
Completed: 7
Remaining: 94
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Day 5, 100309
Whilst not really part of the walking task, I did walk to werk yesterday, and most of the way home. If I spend a week walking to/from work I hit 35 miles. So yesterday was a decent way of working out what I have to do to get 30 miles. I'm not counting wandering about at lunchtime as part of the 30 unless I go out with the tracker as a deliberate "must get my milage up" thing.
I've been good about keeping up with #3, and I've kicked off #66, as well as #26, #87 and #88, all of which are to do with food; breakfasts, lunches, fruit and not buying coffee en route to werk. Three of these are not-that trackable without making stuff as dull as dishwater, so unless something spectacular happens I'll shut up about their details. Still, I'm thoroughly enjoying porridge-and-banana breakfasts.
Growing stuff has started, after a trip to buy a propagator and seeds. I've set some tomatoes and chillies going [#41] and some herbs (basil, oregano, parsley) [#52]. I'm not expecting too much from them for a week or so as they germinate, and I'll pot them out when the weather is suitable. The tomatoes are Costoluto Fiorentino, proper ones that'll require training and pruning; should be interesting.
Currently running habitual tasks: #3 (5/365), #13, #26, #66 (2/250), #87, #88
Currently running exploratory tasks: #38 (1/18)
Currently running growing tasks: #41, #52
Completed: 0
Remaining: 101
I've been good about keeping up with #3, and I've kicked off #66, as well as #26, #87 and #88, all of which are to do with food; breakfasts, lunches, fruit and not buying coffee en route to werk. Three of these are not-that trackable without making stuff as dull as dishwater, so unless something spectacular happens I'll shut up about their details. Still, I'm thoroughly enjoying porridge-and-banana breakfasts.
Growing stuff has started, after a trip to buy a propagator and seeds. I've set some tomatoes and chillies going [#41] and some herbs (basil, oregano, parsley) [#52]. I'm not expecting too much from them for a week or so as they germinate, and I'll pot them out when the weather is suitable. The tomatoes are Costoluto Fiorentino, proper ones that'll require training and pruning; should be interesting.
Currently running habitual tasks: #3 (5/365), #13, #26, #66 (2/250), #87, #88
Currently running exploratory tasks: #38 (1/18)
Currently running growing tasks: #41, #52
Completed: 0
Remaining: 101
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Day 3, 080309
Still on track with #3 and #13, but I'm going to shut up about #13 now and take it as read that it's still on track. #3 is being posted on Flickr as my Project101 - task 3 set. There seems to be quite a few shots of snowdrops at the moment, but I'll mix that up a bit in a day or two.
#38 kicked off this morning with a dip at South Leeds. It highlighted how unfit I am, as I was only able to do 11 lengths of the 25m pool, but water is not really my medium. Even at the height of my swimming (five years ago, now) I was only able to get to 17 lengths. I have shocking technique, and expend a lot of energy going nowhere. The pool itself is ok; water not too overchlorinated, warm inside, busy but not hideously so. The building is a big brick bunker (yes, I have a set for photos relating to task 38 as well, go there to see it), but it's cleanish inside and the staff seem pretty decent guys. I just wish that kids wouldn't eat inside the changing rooms; when I got out of the shower I walked through some very damp and soggy Quavers that stuck to my feet like, well, something disgusting.
Currently running tasks: #3, #13, #38.
Completed: 0
Remaining: 101
#38 kicked off this morning with a dip at South Leeds. It highlighted how unfit I am, as I was only able to do 11 lengths of the 25m pool, but water is not really my medium. Even at the height of my swimming (five years ago, now) I was only able to get to 17 lengths. I have shocking technique, and expend a lot of energy going nowhere. The pool itself is ok; water not too overchlorinated, warm inside, busy but not hideously so. The building is a big brick bunker (yes, I have a set for photos relating to task 38 as well, go there to see it), but it's cleanish inside and the staff seem pretty decent guys. I just wish that kids wouldn't eat inside the changing rooms; when I got out of the shower I walked through some very damp and soggy Quavers that stuck to my feet like, well, something disgusting.
Currently running tasks: #3, #13, #38.
Completed: 0
Remaining: 101
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Day one, 060309
Day one was all about populating the blog with the detailed posts, and whilst at time of writing (but not necessarily posting) I've still not finished that I'm feeling sufficiently on top of things to take a moment to write about stuff I wanted to kick off on day one.
It was just one thing, really: #3, take a photo. I took quite a lot of photos, in fact; we went to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park (which doesn't have an LS postcode, so isn't part of #57), had lunch and in the evening went to Mavis' leaving do, where I was the sort-of event photographer.
#13 was obv a part of yesterday too, but despite what Sam thinks it does count when it's your missus.
Currently running tasks: #3, #13
Completed: 0
Remaining: 101
It was just one thing, really: #3, take a photo. I took quite a lot of photos, in fact; we went to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park (which doesn't have an LS postcode, so isn't part of #57), had lunch and in the evening went to Mavis' leaving do, where I was the sort-of event photographer.
#13 was obv a part of yesterday too, but despite what Sam thinks it does count when it's your missus.
Currently running tasks: #3, #13
Completed: 0
Remaining: 101
Thursday, March 5, 2009
#3
Task: Take a photograph every day for a year (or 365 consecutive days)
What my spreadsheet says: At the very least take a snapshot that contains date/time metadata (or, if using film, make a note of when it was taken!) and, when able to, post it to an online photo hosting service (either flickr or LJ's scrapbook)
More Details: It's more likely to be on Flickr (where I'm known as Nalsa) but that'll mean coughing for a pro account, so this is an item that has a cost attached. They'll all be tagged in Flickr with the mtw101 tag, anyway.
One off task? Nope. This is going to take, well, 365 days.
Measurable? Yes, by having all the photos.
What my spreadsheet says: At the very least take a snapshot that contains date/time metadata (or, if using film, make a note of when it was taken!) and, when able to, post it to an online photo hosting service (either flickr or LJ's scrapbook)
More Details: It's more likely to be on Flickr (where I'm known as Nalsa) but that'll mean coughing for a pro account, so this is an item that has a cost attached. They'll all be tagged in Flickr with the mtw101 tag, anyway.
One off task? Nope. This is going to take, well, 365 days.
Measurable? Yes, by having all the photos.
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