Poetry: Hungry Fencers

Here is poem # 26 for the poetry pledge drive which was inspired by something I do on the weekends.

Hungry Fencers

Don’t look at me,

(En garde)

You were the one

Who was supposed to

Pick it up.

(Attaque)

Yes, but you were the one

Who was supposed to

Place the order.

(Parry, riposte)

Right, but you were

Supposed to leave me

A note with what you wanted.

(Parry, passé)

You mean this

Note, right here?

(Touché )

To read other poems or poetry-related posts on this blog, click here.

Fitness File: My Health '401K' & the Holiday Crisis

It's been a while since I wrote a "Fitness File" post because, well, to be honest, I've been a shiftless slug the past couple of months. What's caused this? Crazy work load? Lack of motivation? Yes and, um, yes . . . because it certainly isn't because I love the complete lack of energy I seem to have all the time, and it definitely isn't a desire to see the squishiness around my midsection morph into a belt-camouflaging muffin top - the former being the current result and the latter being the imminent future result of my not exercising.

I've still been fencing off and on, and that's really great exercise . . . but doing it for a couple of hours on the occasional weekend isn't exactly going to counteract making short order of an entire 16-oz. bag of Trader Joe's Tempting Trail Mix over the course of just three days. People! It said "Tempting" right on the package! How was I to resist?

In all honesty, I'm not that upset with myself though. Why? Because, this time around, I think I started out with the right attitude. I acknowledged upfront that there would be ups and downs, progress and setbacks. Just because I've stumbled doesn't mean I'm down for the count. Granted, it's going to be quite the challenge with heavyweight hitters like Thanksgiving and Christmas right around the corner ready to land their TKOs, but I think I'll be okay if I continue to think about my investment in my health like an investment in a 401K and the upcoming holidays like the current financial crisis. Just because I don't see immediate results, doesn't mean I should stop investing. Just because the numbers don't seem to be going in the right direction at this very moment doesn't mean they won't. Things may improve slowly, but they will with time, and I'll be happy later in life that I weathered the setbacks and continued to invest when I could, even if it's not always a lot.

Other Fitness File Posts

Fitness File: Fencing

When I lived in Pasadena, my friend Randy was the fencing coach at Caltech. I had watched him and his wife compete at tournaments and had met many of their fencing friends at their house. It looked like lots of fun and they all encouraged me to give it a try, so I finally did. I feel really lucky to have had Randy teach me my first lessons. He was extremely positive and patient, I got a very solid grounding in the basics, . . . and he worked my butt off!

At the end of 2005, when I moved to the Ventura County area, I told myself I'd get back to Pasadena to take more lessons from Randy and fence with my Pasadena friends, but the demands of my new job and the hour distance ended up being bigger deterrents than I'd anticipated. And then Randy and his family moved out of state. :( It was quite a while until I felt I had the time and energy to bring fencing back into my life, but I finally got around to it last year and found a great group of people fencing at the Conejo Club at the Conejo Community Center in Thousand Oaks. I've been fencing there on Saturdays off and on ever since. I'd been pretty busy over the summer and didn't have many opportunities to go, but, earlier this month, I did finally pick up where I left off and I hope to keep it up.


In fencing, there are three different weapons - foil, sabre, and epee (see here to the right) - and the weapon you use dictates what is considered target area on your opponent (see above). You'll notice that the bell that covers the hand is bigger on an epee than it is on a foil. That is because the arm is part of the target area when you fence epee and you need more protection from attacks on that arm. Similarly, the bell on a sabre extends around the hand because the hand is actually considered a valid target when you fence sabre. (Note: the shaded areas on the illustration I copied and pasted here are slightly off because the hand is valid target area for sabre.) . . . The goofy get-up is the same regardless of what weapon you fence though.

Some argue that the smaller target area is more challenging. Others argue the larger target area is more challenging. I think that's nonsense. Each just demands a different style of fencing, a different strategy. I fence foil because that's what I learned and because most people fence foil and it makes it easier to find people with whom to fence. It's lots of fun and a great workout. (The protective gear is hot and you do a lot of lunging.)

To the left here is what the Conejo Fencing Club's badge looks like. As some of you may know, conejo is Spanish for rabbit, which is why we have that darting rabbit on there.

What? You don't think a bunny rabbit will intimidate our opponents?? I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss the ferocity of the hare, my friend . . .

I Love Words: Parlance

Since I've used this word as the root for my made-up blog title, I thought I should probably offer its formal definition and a little explanation as to how I came to name my blog. (Yes, I suppose you could say this ILW post is pretty overdue.)

Word: parlance

Pronunciation: \pär'ləns\

Function: noun

Etymology: Anglo-French, from parler ("to speak")

Date: 1579

Definition: 1. a way or manner of speaking that is natural to native speakers of the language; vernacular; idiom: legal parlance.
2. speech, esp. a formal discussion or debate.
3. mutual discourse; conference

How I Chose My Blog Title: I was interested in blogs because of the interactive writing atmosphere they create, as opposed to what you encounter on static, article-posting sites (ergo, the "mutal discourse/conference" definition of parlance came to mind). I was thinking of that and, at the same time, considering some self-identifying words - among them, freelancer and fencer. Sooo, naturally, 2 and 2 came together pretty quickly (i.e., "meaningful root" + "common suffix" = "just right") to form the equation: parlance + er = Parlancer. Voila! Short and sweet and (hopefully) memorable enough. And, because it's a made-up word, the likelihood of there being another "parlancer" out there was pretty low. At least, I hoped. Luckily, after a quick online search, I found I was right, so I stuck my flag in the word and claimed me some blogger.com blogging real estate with it. And the rest is history . . . or, rather, remains to to be seen . . .