Ultrasound Video of Identical Twins

Filed as General with no replies

We went to the doctor today and found out that our twins are diamniotic monochorionic.  That means each twin has an individual amniotic sack but they share a placenta.  It also means the twins are almost certainly identical twins.

We also got our first twin video!

13 Week Ultrasound

(You can select one of the buttons on the bottom of the video to watch it full screen.)

Pregnant with Twins (Embarazada de Mellizos)

Filed as Classical Fencing, Destreza (Spanish swordplay), Fencing, General, Historical Fencing, Italian Rapier with no replies

My lovely wife is pregnant with twins and the first trimester officially ends on Thursday, February 25, 2010.  Of course, you want to see the pictures and I won’t deny you.

Baby Pictures

Here is the latest Ultrasound from this last Thursday:

Our twins at Week 11. (Click for High Resolution.)

Things seemed to be going fine with the Ultrasound when the doctor noticed some strange behavior.

Twin A turned to face Twin B so as to minimize his profile.

Fortunately, I was there and was able to interpret what was happening inside Mary’s tummy.

From Twin A's invitation in 4th, Twin B attempted to find the sword on the outside line in 3rd with his hand in 2nd. Twin A, executed a cavazione di tempo, but executed it as a feint. Twin B counterattacked in 4th only to be parried by Twin A in 4th who responded with a riversa to the outside cheek. Twin B eluded the cut to the outside cheek by lifting his hilt into Italian sabre parry of 7th and then in a sudden transition Twin B attempted to pass and seize the off hand of Twin A with a Spanish Movement of Conclusion. Perfectly in synch with Ettenhard's theory, Twin A eluded the circular footwork with circular footwork of his own and the phrase ended.

Seriously Now…

When Mary and I got back from Spain, we got our lives back into a semblance of order and then gave it our best shot.  We got pregnant almost immediately and had a bit of a scare at 7 weeks when we thought we were out of the game for awhile.

We were scheduled for an emergency ultrasound and that’s when we discovered not only was Mary still pregnant, but that there were two little hearts beating in there.  We’re incredibly happy and things are going very well for us now.

Because of the earlier scare, we have been keeping this quiet but with the first trimester ending next week we’re lifting the veil of secrecy.  My blog has been remarkably quiet of late and that’s because a good deal of our effort has been consolidated into writing up our experiences as we go through the pregnancy on Mary’s blog.  Until today, these entries have been password protected with only immediate family having access.

The due date for a typical pregnancy would be about September 9, 2010.  With our twin pregnancy, we expect the twins to arrive sooner, sometime in mid August.

Mary’s Baby Blog

We’ve been blogging about the whole thing since we found out and you can read about it here:

• Mary’s Blog
• The First Pregnancy Post
• The First Ultrasound
• Mary’s Twin-Bump
• The Second Ultrasound:
• Mary’s Twin-Bump Part 2
• Puck’s First Twin Post

If you want to read all the posts (which is not required by any stretch of the imagination), start on January 1, and use the calendar on the right to select the different dates.

We’re having a wonderful time working our way through the process.

Rover’s Collision Avoidance is Working!

Filed as General with no replies

(1/22/2010)

We managed to get a very clean test of the RoverLORD today.

RoverLORD & The Cube of No Return

Here is a link to my Technical Blog

God Responds to Pat Robertson

Filed as General, Politics and News, Satire with no replies

God and Robertson

Yesterday, Pat Robertson claimed that God was punishing the people of Haiti with a devastating earthquake.  In an attempt to be fair and balanced we contacted God and offered him a chance to respond.

Interviewer: I want to welcome you to the interview and give you a chance to address Mr. Robertson’s claims that you want to punish the people of Haiti.  Is this earthquake an expression of your displeasure?

God: First, I want to be very clear to everyone that earthquakes are a natural process of the planet’s normal tectonic motion.  When two large solid bodies slowly collide it creates a shearing and buckling effect which can occasionally result in a violent release of energy when two colliding bodies rapidly slip.

At this point in the interview God held his hands together and demonstrated a rapid sliding action by moving his hands in different directions.

When the pressure between two objects overcomes the friction a rapid slipping motion can occur.

God: As shown this week, it can be quite a lot of energy and it can be very destructive.  On the other hand, tectonic motion is actually vital to all life on earth because it helps to maintain the balance of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.  I use the same process to create mountains and move continents around.  It is very handy.

Interviewer: What is your response to Mr. Robertson’s claims of divine vengeance?

God: I heard that yesterday Pat implied that I have some kind of grudge or vendetta against the people of Haiti and nothing could be further from the truth.  Making this kind of claim is on par with saying that I’m using gravity to punish plane crash victims or diseases to punish the sick.

I want to make it very clear that these are natural processes and not any sort of value judgment.  I’m afraid that some people feel like they have a unique provenance over morality and try to incorrectly assert ownership by interpreting a terrible natural tragedy as a directed act of malice to justify their own beliefs.

It is not my place to protect humanity from the world, but if you can help each other in times of need, showing compassion and respect for others, that is no small thing.  You will find a few notes about compassion and other useful advice in my books which are available in stores now.

Interviewer: I’ll look forward to reading them.

God: Thanks. Would someone mind passing this information on to Pat?  He doesn’t seem to be listening to me much anymore.

Interviewer: You can always try sending a letter to the Christian Broadcasting Network:

The Christian Broadcasting Network
977 Centerville Turnpike
Virginia Beach, VA 23463

God: I may have to give that a try.

Pacheco’s Destreza Curriculum

Filed as Classical Fencing, Destreza (Spanish swordplay), Fencing, General, Historical Fencing with no replies

(12/16/2009)

Don Luis Pacheco de Narváez

With the Ettenhard translation rolling out we have been getting some requests on what material a fencing instructor should teach during a Destreza class. Rather than provide my own answer, it might be useful to look back to the living tradition. In 1625 don Luis Pacheco de Narváez wrote a document that provides us with this information.  It was considered important enough that it was later republished in 1658:

Modo facil y nvevo para examinarse los Maestros en la Destreza de las Armas (Easy and New Way to Examine the Maestros in the Art of Weapons)

folios 81v-85v

The book is written as a conversation with a Maestro testing a student’s knowledge. Presented here for the first time in English is Mary’s translation of Pacheco’s recommended curriculum:

Pacheco’s Curriculum

• Teach the theory before the practice
• Theory
  1. Explain “the simple movements and the mixed ones that can be done with the arm and those that can be done with the swords” (f. 82r).  (See Article.)
  2. Tell him about “the six general lines, the simple ones and the mixed, in which it is possible for the opponent to assume his stance, and show him how the line of the right angle has the greatest reach and defense” (f. 82r).  (See Article.)
  3. Explain “the vertical, collateral and diagonal lines envisioned on the body, and how the strikes should be executed along them” (f. 82r).
  4. Next, the footwork—”simple and compound steps, to which foot each belongs and which are common to both feet” (f. 82r-v). (See Article.)
  5. “Afterward, [explain] the circle that is imagined between the two combatants with the transversal  and infinite lines envisioned in it along which the steps are made” (f. 82v). (See Article.)
  6. “Give the student very detailed information about the angles that are created by the contact of the swords, and how (whether to place atajo or to do what is called the gaining) it is necessary that there are four and either all of them are right angles or two are obtuse angles and two acute. The right angles (the swords touching in the middle of their lengths) only serve for the defense and offense” (f. 82v).  (See Article.)
  7. “Tell him how there are only two ways to do the techniques, the one with the positioning of the sword and the other gaining the degrees of profile” (f. 82v-83r).
  8. Tell him “that in the art of defense there are only five techniques—the Circular cut and reverse, the thrust, and the half cut and reverse—and explain to him the movements that compose each one whether the sword is free or subjected” (f. 83r).
  9. “Prove to him also that there are not detaining parries, that the deflections are harmful, and that the subjection is what one should do instead of them” (f. 83r).
• Practice
  1. “Teach him how to hold the sword in the hand and how it is advisable to hold it tightly in the hand so that the strength of the body can be communicated to the sword by means of the arm…and the movements can be strong and fast” (f. 83r-v).  (See Article.)
  2. Explain “that one always assumes one’s stance in the right angle, the arm straight, without the arm nor the hand participating in any of the four extremes—low, high, to one side or the other” (f. 83v). (See Article.)
  3. Explain “that he should have the body profiled, equally over both feet, and the feet with one heel in front of the other and not further apart than half a foot in such a way that if the tip of the left was turned it would arrive at the heel of the right” (f. 83v).
  4. “Teach him the four general techniques” (f. 83v).
  5. Show him “the opposition that the some techniques make to the others and the particular techniques over which each one has control” (f. 83v).
  6. “And finally [explain] all the materials that have been dealt with here” (f. 83v-84r).

Links

I have linked some of the previous Destreza articles from the blog relevant to each of Pacheco’s points.

Ettenhard and More

Reading through Ettenhard’s work you will see that he follows this curriculum very closely.  Pacheco has more to say and you can expect to see his advice here once we have it in English.

~P.