Chemistry, Caliburn, Counter-parry, Cowboys!

Wow! This week was so busy!

Ok! To start off, this week was opposite the other week in homework. I am crushed beneath a tidal wave of reading, papers, and math problems. Just the other night I was nearly impaled by a particularly sharp Integral sign.
Ah, but I complain too much. It is by no means intolerable or impossible.
Monday was fairly normal. Chemistry in the morning where we reviewed molar mass and chemical formulation, followed by Calculus in the afternoon. The real fun began in that afternoon's Fencing. We watched a DVD of the World Championship Fencers ( of Foil.)
We watched two matches. The first was between an Italian and another Italian of the same team. Because of this, the match was friendly, but still serious. The thing I came to realize about it was, this fencing in not our idea of movie fencing. When I thought of fencing, it was the ideas of Edmund Dantes or Three Musketeers, swashbuckling and fighting back and forth for minutes on end. No, this kind of fencing was more like a couple of snakes fighting. There is a lot of darting and feinting, quick steps and sword flicks, then a sudden stab or quick movement, almost often too fast to really see. The idea of it was to be the first to attack and land a true hit. Even if the other hits you before you hit them, if you initiate the attack and connect, you win the point. So you must parry or dodge their hit (parry being flick their sword of-target with yours), and then you gain the attack. If you can land a true hit then, you get the point. Theirs all kinds of ways to dodge and hit, riposting and disengaging and flicking, etc. Anyway, the Italian won (:P), and went on the final to play a German. This guy was interesting. The Italian way of fighting is very calm, and stationary, with quick flicks and movement. The German's style was constant, unpredictable movements, often with a fast sprint or charge. He eventually won. The instructor gave us a lot of insight about the matches. About how, the more you move, the more unpredictable you are, but the harder it is to set up a balanced hit, and the more you move the blade tip, the better you are able to penetrate defense, but are less well protected yourself.
Whew! Next day, I had Apocalypse Whenever, which has kind of been letting me down. I thought we would be getting into the what and why of the Apocalypse; what do these things mean? Why are they here? Why are WE here?! You, know, those deep questions. All we are really doing though, is examining it from an analytical point of view, as in, why is this persuasive? Why would the author do this? What does this sentence have to do with the others? This, while important, is just not very interesting to me. The packet we read recently, one of the thickest, most incomprehensible arguments I have ever read, did not help. Plus, all of the discussions have been difficult due to the fact that some of the group members are rather....er....outspoken atheists, who don't realize how much their words may be upsetting or hurting others. I know it is good to have different points of view in a discussion, but respect is paramount. It made even me, who I would like to think as fairly open-minded, squirm a bit. I have a feeling that they assume that others think as they do a bit more than is realistic. These hardly seem malicious, just not well thought out. Eh, but who knows. Things will probably get better.
Next, in Arthurian Lit, we finally got to the part in A History of the Kings of Britain that concerned Arthur and Merlin. It is at this point more than ever I realized how the author was not writing a history per se, but a fictional nationalistic piece meant to give the Britains a history to be proud of. It was very different than The Once and Future King. In King, Arthur was famous for his establishing a system of justice and defeating the concept of Might is Right. In History, he would conquer all of Britain and surrounding islands, shouting for the Britons to kill all of their enemies and calling upon the strength of God as he slaughtered thousands on the field. Next he would go on to take Gaul (France, I think) and keep going to challenge Rome. This battle itself contained no less than 120,000 soldiers on each side, a great many of which would be killed. He probably would've taken the whole known world had his treacherous nephew (bastard son in King) Mordred married his wife Guenevere and taken Britain out from under him. In the later fights, he would kill Mordred, but become Mortally wounded himself. Their is a very brief mention of him gathering knights to him and creating an advanced society, but a lot more was him killing. A lot. And giving a lot of gifts to nobles and people around him. Also! In this version, Merlin has nothing to do with Arthur's life or upbringing, just with his conception, which is put in a much better view than in King (which had it by abduction, rape, and trickery, as opposed to liberation trickery, and acceptance.)
Enough Arthur!
Tonight, that is yesterday, I went and saw 3:10 to Yuma with a fellowship/church group. It was an excellent movie, with great people (Christian Bayle, Russel Crowe, Luke Wilson, Alan Tudyk, and others), and a great story. It was deeper than I thought it was going to be, and with many sub-plots and excellent character development. But one thing sticks out in my mind. The title, for those who don't know, signifies to 3:10 Prison Train to Yuma Prison. Well, as that train pulled into the station, at that exact moment, the train that passes through Claremont about every hour or so passed by! It was perfect, with the train whistles blowing and the horn blasting...it was pretty cool. I wont give away anything, but a little plot summery is: Christian Bayle is an Ex-Military Rancher come on hard times, with little respect from his son and family. Russel Crowe is a surprisingly well educated, slippery, deadly outlaw, who is surprised and caught. Bayle becomes entangled with the catchers, and decides to join them for a $200 reward if he can get Crowe on the 3:10 to Yuma in 2 days. Crowe has quite a large gang on their tail though. It was a very well-done film.
Wow...I'm tired. Think that's it for the night, folks.

This didn't really seem WISE to me, but just kind of funny =D.
Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. THAT'S relativity.
-Albert Einstein