The Think Tank

Portland, OR —

Chris Roberts-Olsen, Supreme Allied Decorator for the Northeastern Front, has declared victory today over the forces of Grinchiness everywhere, bringing to an end nearly four weeks of feverish efforts.

“There will still be some minor wrap up operations, cleaning up a few hold-outs here and there,” said Sue Lauber, the Northeastern Regional Commandant.  “But major decorating operations are now ended.  We haven’t seen so much as a green Grinch hair since before Thanksgiving.”

Roberts-Olsen and Lauber are satisfied with their efforts this year, but they aren’t getting cocky.  “We’re prepared for some additional setbacks.  You never know when a string of lights could blink out,” Roberts-Olsen reported.  “But it looks like everything will be a good to go before the weekend”, he said, referencing the traditional end to the fighting season.

Not everyone is as chipper as those two, however.  “You people are ridiculous,” declared Shannon Corgill, a former Reservist recently called to active duty.  “I better get a back rub out of this deal.”

They say we are in for a real deluge over the next 24-36 hours: Up to 3 inches of rain is expected in the Metro area.  That means we can probably expect to see more scenes like this one that I encountered on the way into work this morning.  Bummer of a way to start the day.

I don’t really have a much time to go into details here, but I finished up a little bit  better on the second day, scoring 580 on the day.  That is in line with the 290 average I wanted to maintain, even if it is on the bottom end.  All in all I felt I shot very well.  I was actually on track for about a 585, but I got into a little jag where I couldn’t get my poop in a group, and I dropped seven points in just nine arrows (accounting for all but one of the misses in the outer yellow that you see at left).  Aside from that stretch I felt very solid.

I am unsure of placement because I shot Friday-Saturday and there were still guys shooting on Sunday who weren’t done yet.  I will post an update when I hear from WSAA.

Additional information: —————————————

Start date: Nov 19, 2011 11:33 AM Target: FITA Inner Ten Total score: 580

Tens: 40  Nines: 20  Shots with proper execution: 57/66

Two Day Total:  1156

— Sent from my iPhone

We started this line at 7pm and did not finish until after 11pm, so at this point it is is after midnight.  As such I am going to keep this brief.

I shot 288 on both rounds today, for a total of 576.  (600 is possible). My general rule is that I shouldn’t drop below a 290, so I was a bit off of that but not so far as to be really disappointed.  (FITA tournaments score this target differently than most.  For FITA, only the very small dime-sized X-Ring counts as a ten.  Everything else in the yellow is a nine.  The X-Ring is not really visible in the image at left, because it is underneath a pile of hit indicators.  For comparison, using normal Vegas scoring, I would have shot 596/36X  out of a possible 600/60X.)

I felt that I shot pretty well most of the night. I stayed pretty calm and focused on my form and usually when I missed I could identify why. I got shakier as the night wore on and my shoulder got sore, but that is par for the course right now.  I really need to into the shop to shoot 3-4 times a week (instead of once a week like I have been), and I also need to get into the gym as well and build up my shoulder strength.

I don’t know my placement so far because a lot of people did not shoot tonight: you have to shoot two of the three days (Fri-Sun), and only a few adults shot the Friday line. I’m guessing that score should put me in the top 5-6, but I find it doubtful I would be higher than that.

All in all I feel OK with today. I messed some up, but I shot pretty well overall. Tomorrow is the next day, as the man says.

The rest of the post will be my self critique and shooting notes. Read on if you like, but it will prolly be boring. 😉

(continue reading…)

Joel made a time-lapse video of himself working on his Jeep the other day, which inspired me to make one myself.  I was thinking that it would be really neat to set the camera up in the yard and make a film of the Halloween and Christmas transformations, but I got the idea too late for both of those projects, so instead I made a video of putting up the Christmas Village last night.

To do it, I set my camera to take a picture every ten seconds, then used Windows Movie Maker to compile it into the video you see above.  I think it turned out pretty neat.  The only thing that I wish is that we were able to actually get it done that fast!

In case anyone is curious, the video is comprised of 1,754 still images shot over the course of about 5 hours.