You were given one life. Why waste it not being the best version of yourself. If there is no author in the quote, it is an original saying by yours truly
Joined April 2022
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Chapter 1. Why learn swordplay or HEMA (or martial arts in general) in this day and age
Swordplay or martial arts has a tremendous background that historians are still figuring out to this day. Every society and people have their roots to military or warriors as early as 2700 BCE (Earliest recorded battle) and it is fairly safe to assume the art of combat was around well before even that point of history. But what is the significance of learning it today?
Lets start with the benefits of learning and examples of application
1. Choreography. Movies and videogames need better and more accurate melee fighting. The importance being all the more into the historical side for era specific movies when HEMA is entered into the mix. The depth and impact of the movements is more thrilling in games when the mechanics realistically work, and the movesets are more than just "swing sword or block". More of us in the field is improvement for audiences as well as promoting notoriety for the swordplay community at large.
2. Health. Martial arts is active meditation! It is exercise as well as brain food for understanding complex movements and establishing eye-hand coordination. It takes a multitude of different muscles to maintain good posture, balance, swing, thrust, wrestle, pivot, twist, and lunge. The cardio and endurance will improve for you overall and through time you will grow as a more confident and capable person in more than just swordplay.
3. History. When learning HEMA, you are honoring and taking part in the culture of another era, possibly one of your very ancestors even! The benefit doesn't stop there though, it is historians that translated and theorized and made it possible to study Treatises and learn HEMA to begin with. Becoming learned in combat has the potential to help the further translation and understanding of treatises or manuscripts currently known, or ones that possibly haven't been uncovered yet.
4. Self defense. This topic is particularly a gray area because its hard to prove empirically. The fact of the matter is even professional knife fighters and trainers know the hard reality that you generally don't leave unscathed in a fight. Always attempt to flee first (if it truly is the best avenue for your situation). If lets say, you are backed into a corner though, would you not stand to benefit knowing how to swing something effectively in an attempt to remove yourself from the danger? You or I are not invincible, but having knowledge and, more importantly, PRACTICE of the mechanics of martial arts gives us a better fighting chance to survive unfavorable and dangerous encounters.
5. Science! The minute you start learning anything regarding swordplay and applying it, you are, in hilarious fashion, a Scientist of Violence! You, as a practitioner, are creating a formula of your own making by incorporating measurements of timing, balance, biomechanics, angles, physics, psychology, health and fitness, and even philosophy to create your very own unique interpretation of the art. By practicing and more importantly, sparring, you are engaging in rigorous experimentation to form conclusions that will eventually master your form with enough open minded adjustments and practice.
Furthermore, the craft as it stands as I write this, is actually very lacking in cohesion and proper application. Very few who practice it actually implement fluidity to both the understanding and mechanics of melee combat, and there are far more examples of poor swordplay in Hollywood and videogames than there are good. This makes the idea of picking up a sword and swinging it sound rediculous to quite a few people, or just plain stupid to put it bluntly. This book is not for them. We, being you and I, will prove them wrong by improving the field by instilling a framework that can be applied to hopefully all melee forms of martial arts, creating a golden era of knowledge and improvement to the field in tremendous glory.
Bearistotle retweeted
Every GOP strategist, consultant, and candidate should be forced to participate in a role-playing exercise this morning.
Your name is Bob. You’re a 49-year-old blue-collar worker in Ohio. You’ve always struggled to make ends meet. The good jobs were all shipped to China and the few remaining pay a pittance wage, undercut by endless illegal labor.
You’re a 3x Trump voter because you believed he would finally make America great again.
You put your son through Ohio State. He graduated cum laude in computer science. You couldn’t have been prouder. After months searching, he landed an entry-level job at Microsoft. Beneath his qualifications, but a good start for a smart kid.
Then he got laid off. That same month, Microsoft applied for 150,000 more H-1B visas because it can’t find qualified Americans.
Your son has spent six months back in his childhood bedroom, sending hundreds of applications without landing an interview.
On TV, Trump boasts about the greatest economy in history and how many women and minorities are finding jobs.
You decide a father-son steak night might cheer him up.
Gas is $4.50 a gallon. Filling your truck costs over $100. At Kroger, ribeyes are $30/lb. You settle for hamburger, even though 70/30 ground beef still costs $10+.
At checkout, a fat black woman is screaming at the cashier because her EBT will only cover most of the filet mignon and lobster in her cart.
You think to yourself how the Iran war has made everything expensive, but at least we’re stopping their nuclear bomb. You weren’t even sure where Iran was before you googled it after we first bombed them in March.
After dinner, you take your son to the county fair. Half the people aren’t speaking English. Virtually none of the crowd looks like you. You’re forced to leave early after a “teen takeover” turns violent. A foreign born judge pledges none of them will go to jail.
Back home, you turn on the TV. Vivek Ramaswamy is lecturing the crowd about American mediocrity and why Ohio needs more foreign talent.
Your son grows upset. You change the channel.
Now a Republican surrogate, the daughter of a governor or wife of an elderly billionaire, explains that young White men are the REAL welfare queens. They’d rather play videogames in their parents’ basements than work.
Your son says nothing. He just goes back to his childhood bedroom. You turn off the TV.
Then your neighbor starts blasting reggaeton and cracking open Modelos. He brought his cousin’s family from Mexico to help with all the minority-business contracts his construction firm keeps winning. Tonight they’re celebrating his nephew’s birth, the family’s first birthright American citizen.
You sit alone in your living room.
You worked hard, paid taxes, obeyed the law, and raised your son to do everything right. You voted Republican again and again because you believed somebody in Washington would finally fight for you.
Instead, your wages are stagnant. Groceries are unaffordable. Your community is unrecognizable. Your country is fighting another foreign war.
And upstairs, the son you sacrificed everything for is lying awake in the bedroom he slept in at twelve, wondering what the heck he’s even supposed to do with his life now.
Every time you turn on the TV, the Republicans you elected are either congratulating themselves or explaining why you and your son are the problem.
For ten years, they told you America’s future depended on your vote. Now you aren’t even sure America has a future worth defending.
The Republican Party needs to answer one simple question this morning:
You’ve spent a decade demanding Bob’s loyalty. You’ve given him stagnant wages, unaffordable groceries, another foreign war, and a son who did everything right but can’t find work.
And when they complain, you call them lazy, entitled, and racist.
What possible reason have you given Bob and his son to vote Republican? Do you honestly think you deserve their vote?
Bearistotle retweeted
Dense spaces have a different community structure than open spaces.
In dense spaces you are anonymous to most people you see. They are a sea of faces that glide past you on your walk or your bus ride.
You don't know them.
When this happens, since people don't know their neighbors and have support structures, like churches and men's clubs, they vote for social programs. They assume no one else has support networks, and rather than joining one, they abdicate that responsibility to the state.
If you've never struggled in a big city, this is probably hard to imagine.
This keeps them from voting to the right because the right is always somewhat against social programs. To an extent those social programs for the city dweller are a layer of protection too.
If you think crime is bad in San Francisco, or Detroit or Chicago now, wait until there isn't free food and subsidized rent.
Bad people will always commit crimes, but when you add in hungry people it gets worse.
It always blows my mind how every major urban city in our country votes democrat...it's as if it's by design, which I believe it is. You look at the wide open spaces of Texas, they're conservative, free, and private. Major urban centers with people packed like sardines, they're liberal...I'll never understand it.
Bearistotle retweeted
The only thing worse than the Republicans not understanding the repudiation that just occurred is that Democrats actually believe they won based on their policy positions.
Bearistotle retweeted
I have assumed control of the government without votes. Everyone gets a free cat. Everyone gets a daily meme. No taxes on property of any kind. Nobody with an income below 100k pays any taxes. 31 days of vacation every year for everyone. All fraud will result in deportation.
Nihilism may very well be the truth in all endings, but it will not define the flash of time that is my very existence
Bearistotle retweeted
I made a tracker for firearms legislation.
armedandlegislated.com/
I am an advocate for "doing it yourself" but this is a very valid criticism of how ridiculously priced it all is
Just got quoted $2,400 to paint a 23 by 13 foot living room.
The 4 gallons of paint it takes to do the job costs about $110 at Home Depot, or around $160 if you want Sherwin Williams.
This is not a particularly skilled job.
You went to trade school, not medical school.
You own a brush and a roller.
Stop ripping people off, contractors.
This is EXACTLY my stance
Bioware employees losing their jobs is a good thing and I'm tired of pretending it isn't. The AAAA industry is shrinking but deserves to disappear.
The Adventures of Dwarfchad and Soy Elf #47: "Bye, bye, bi!"
