Just today I caught the preview of the upcoming Hitchhiker’s Guide radio series. Holy Zarquon’s Singing Fish, I am physically incapable of waiting 52 days for this. My higher brane functions will be totally consumed with anticimpatience in, oh, three minutes ago.

In other news… My fencing class is now on break for the rest of the summer. Beth, our coach, applied for a job in Pennsylvania, and if she gets it I really hope the class continues to be as much fun. We all got together for dinner on Tuesday, and Beth had printed out a little award certificate for each of us. Mine was “most improved.” I’m not sure that’s true, but it made me feel good.

Work promises to be much more meetingful for the next month. Our only other technical writer will be away on his sabbatical, so I’ll be attending meetings in his stead in addition to my own normal meeting load. Thankfully, our actual projects are at kind of an ebb, so the timing is pretty good.

Oof, my right side is pocked with little bruises from fencing last night. Good fun though. I took my usual group lesson in foil, and stayed for a group lesson in epee, which is completely new to me. It’s really different, even though the basic skills transfer easily.

Here’s a little background for those new to the subject. What it only hints at is that while a foil bends easily, absorbing a lot of the force of the attack, the sturdier epee blade can actually hurt when it hits you. But the differences in the rules are what make it interesting.

I found the additional target area was beneficial to me last night; I was scoring a lot of touches on the arm. I also think epee will suit my somewhat defensive general approach pretty well. I’m not really committed to it yet, in terms of buying my own epee and eventually competing in it. I figure I’ll wait until I have some more experience with it. If it’s always this much fun, though, I’ll definitely be doing a lot more of it.

Either way, I’ll definitely keep doing foil. I think being good at foil will make me better at epee, while the reverse is less true.