So, due to the additional responsibilities, Kirk seems to have made adjustments to cover that particular. That’s good I suppose, although money isn’t the main concern for me nowadays (although that statement makes me sound like an overpaid git).
Add comment January 31st, 2007
I haven’t been this sick in a while… staying home from work for the last while because I must have Norwalk or something, have a lot of dual action (if you know what I mean). Made several trips back and forth in the dead of night and at least one of them forgot to sanitize which didn’t please Karen. But was walking spew zombie, so hopefully I’ll be forgiven.
Add comment January 30th, 2007
Took the core North American team to a Raptors game at the ACC. Overall, I am a hockey fan if anything, just didn’t find much interesting to watch. Neat to use the OTC box but it was really expensive.
Add comment January 22nd, 2007
Joined the second production meeting for the short film “Shakespeare’s Angels” which is supposed to be a cross between a mash of Shakespeare’s works and Charlie’s Angels. I got invited along because there was to be fighting and honestly, how could I resist? Turns out I get to play a bit part as well, which should be fun as well. Overall, looks to be a higher production comedy short which will have quite an enjoyable cast with whom to work.
Add comment January 21st, 2007
Yesterday and today have been the worst wind I’ve ever seen in EU. Got stuck in Frankfurt because I missed a connection and thousands of us are trying to head back to North America amidst some of the most blustery conditions seen on the continent in a long time. Got a connection through Chicago (at least in the ballpark), but Chicago being what it was I got delayed for 4 hours and finally reached home 15h later than originally planned.
Add comment January 18th, 2007
Flew to Germany this week — some serious changes on the German management side, did several presentations with Kirk around the changes in structure within R&D (that not everyone is pleased with). I’ve now been given responsibility for all of the EU work as well as what I owned before — guess I’m a worldwide guy now. That is a very daunting task especially since I don’t know the German side even remotely as well as the North American side of the business. Definitely up for the challenge but I hope I can rapidly develop some significant relationships.
Add comment January 16th, 2007
So, it is particularly challenging to return to work after being off for 3 weeks, especially when you don’t have any down time between the last activity and the work week. I hope to get caught up by Thursday.
Add comment January 9th, 2007
Because I love having nice weapons, I bought 8 new broadswords (from Baltimore Knife and Sword) from the workshop and searched all over town to get enough packing material to be able to check them. After a marathon bubblewrap session I finally got all my stuff together and went off to the Calgary airport. Met up with Jacques whom was flying to Toronto as well as I, so I upgraded both of us to first class so we could sit and talk together in comfort. I think Jacques enjoyed the flight. :) I for myself was very, very happy to be home at last to see my lovely wife and get a bit (however short) of downtime.
Add comment January 7th, 2007
Decided to have a bit of downtime rather than have a last day of classes and went skiing with Laura, Siobhan, Spencer, Bryce, Marie-Helen and Ian. We went up onto Sunshine and it was one of the worst skiing experiences I have ever had in my life. Sunshine has no trees at the top, I was expecting it to be a bit more like Whistler… but it was very cold (like -30) and very windy and nothing to break the blizzard as we skied. The crew went off and Marie-Helen and I skied together just trying to get down from the top of the mountain. Wasn’t so easy for Marie-Helen because after all there aren’t low visibility, icy, Rocky Mountain conditions found commonly in South Africa. But we made it down to the half mountain point and met the others. They hadn’t done much either because it was so cold. We were happy to leave in the early afternoon and head back to the arts centre. The workshop ended off as I always love with a show. Some of the folks did performances from the workshop choreography that they had rehearsed or their actual shows they do professionally. It was an excellent time and very entertaining.
Add comment January 6th, 2007
I got to be part of Kyle, Casey and Ian’s broadsword vs. quarterstaff fight sequence. I was lucky I got to play the boardsword guy and fight the other two off… It was a pretty fun sequence and we got rocking through to the end of the class. We got asked if we could perform it on Saturday for the group because we were the tightest group, but sadly Laura (one of the quarterstaffers) had to fly home on Saturday so we had to pass on the honour. That was cool… I remember the first time I went to Banff in 1998 I was a little disappointed when I didn’t get picked to be on stage (but then again, I was just a beginner at the time). Moved on a chain workshop with Kyle (from Sydney Stage Combat) and Tony (doing Bartitsu) — that was fun and interesting but the woman I was fighting didn’t speak English very well and kept wanting me to rush through it which made it difficult for us to work together. Kyle and Tony made it look slick and seamless however.
Add comment January 5th, 2007
I had better time doing a bit of assisting Bryce in his gravity class where he threw me around a bit. He’s such a fantastic guy and I wish I got to work with him more often. Also did a cutlass class with Casey and Pops which was very very different and I muddled through it with my partner Eve. The cutlass techniques that Pops developed are all tangential hits at very close quarters on a circular path, definitely not for beginners but looks fantastic.
Add comment January 4th, 2007
So, I got to help Daniel today with Rapier & Dagger and for some reason that made me very nervous…. I don’t know why it should have, but I certainly didn’t feel confident with even the stuff I know I know when I was helping Daniel… guess I just didn’t want to screw it up for him. Anyway, it was a lot of fun, but if that’s the way I react, then I’m way further off being an accredited instructor than I thought. Very nice opportunity though to assist Daniel with his class.
Add comment January 3rd, 2007
Oh god, wearing the same underwear for 4 days is not good, and you can’t borrow underwear from your friends, it’s not cool. I blew out my boxers yesterday doing some deep lunges or something, so I’m more wearing a loin cloth now as opposed to underwear which is just fantastic. What’s worse though is socks… after you’ve worked out in socks for 4 days they are NASTY, even if you try to clean them. Fortunately after my Systema class with Spencer (Slash) and a quarterstaff class with Paul, I arrived in my room to finally find my luggage (woo hoo). I got changed for an afternoon of smallsword with Jacques, should be much better now.
Add comment January 2nd, 2007
As expected, no chance of getting clothes today — Ian loaned me some pants and I managed to purchase a shirt at the gift shop yesterday that should tide me over for a short while. Did some interesting knife work with Kristhoffer Jorgensen and some very real ground fighting and take downs with Allen Reid (my partner was Tony for that and even though he is half my body weight I’m sure the kiwi could easily kill me).
Add comment January 1st, 2007