taking up arms, etc.
So what with one thing and another by last week I was down to three shootable arrows, which makes shooting sort of inefficient. (Shoot three, retrieve them, shoot three, retrieve them, etc.) Normally, in competition and so on, you shoot in sets of six, so three was getting a bit silly. So! Friday was to buy more arrows. My new arrows have differently colored fletching and nocks, so I can tell which ones are the newest, but they're all the same kind and shoot pretty much the same.
(Meanwhile, I had tossed two arrows with broken nocks into my backseat, rather than carry them into the archery range with me, and then forgot to take them inside and wound up driving around for a day with two aluminum arrows rattling around in the backseat. As it turns out, two aluminum arrows knocking together sounds exactly like two aluminum knitting needles; I suddenly want to put blunt tips on them and use them to knit something enormously wide.)
Anyway, Friday, first time out with the new arrows, I was startled by how fast the shooting went--much more efficient shooting in sixes than threes! I was also startled because my arms didn't really feel tired and my aim didn't start wobbling, even after I'd shot 10 rounds, which was nearly half again as much as I'd shot the last time out. On the other hand, my aim, while not wobbling, was consistently pretty dreadful.
Tonight, on the other hand, I started feeling the effort in my arms on the second or third round of arrows, but my accuracy was--for me--rather spectacular. Even more entertaining was watching myself demonstrate a learning curve: on my first, second, third, fourth, and fifth rounds at twenty yards, I put zero, two, three, four, and five arrows into the scoring area of the target, respectively. (Then on the sixth round I went back down to one, which is my arms' way of telling me it is time to go home.)
There is probably some kind of lesson there.
Anyway, now my arms are Really Quite Tired, so it is a night for sitting quietly on the couch, perhaps working my way through the Nebula-nominated short fiction, since lots of it is available for the clicking. I do believe, more of it than when the list was first posted--looks like some nominees or their rights-holders are stepping up to make nominated stories widely available, which is pretty cool. I am especially pleased by this since all these stories are, as far as I can tell, also eligible to be nominated for the Hugos this year, in which I am nominating and voting. I'm not going to Reno, but I bought a supporting membership so I could vote, as I have read enough eligible books from 2010 to have Opinions.
(Meanwhile, I had tossed two arrows with broken nocks into my backseat, rather than carry them into the archery range with me, and then forgot to take them inside and wound up driving around for a day with two aluminum arrows rattling around in the backseat. As it turns out, two aluminum arrows knocking together sounds exactly like two aluminum knitting needles; I suddenly want to put blunt tips on them and use them to knit something enormously wide.)
Anyway, Friday, first time out with the new arrows, I was startled by how fast the shooting went--much more efficient shooting in sixes than threes! I was also startled because my arms didn't really feel tired and my aim didn't start wobbling, even after I'd shot 10 rounds, which was nearly half again as much as I'd shot the last time out. On the other hand, my aim, while not wobbling, was consistently pretty dreadful.
Tonight, on the other hand, I started feeling the effort in my arms on the second or third round of arrows, but my accuracy was--for me--rather spectacular. Even more entertaining was watching myself demonstrate a learning curve: on my first, second, third, fourth, and fifth rounds at twenty yards, I put zero, two, three, four, and five arrows into the scoring area of the target, respectively. (Then on the sixth round I went back down to one, which is my arms' way of telling me it is time to go home.)
There is probably some kind of lesson there.
Anyway, now my arms are Really Quite Tired, so it is a night for sitting quietly on the couch, perhaps working my way through the Nebula-nominated short fiction, since lots of it is available for the clicking. I do believe, more of it than when the list was first posted--looks like some nominees or their rights-holders are stepping up to make nominated stories widely available, which is pretty cool. I am especially pleased by this since all these stories are, as far as I can tell, also eligible to be nominated for the Hugos this year, in which I am nominating and voting. I'm not going to Reno, but I bought a supporting membership so I could vote, as I have read enough eligible books from 2010 to have Opinions.