(no subject)

Happy birthday to nminusone!

want it done right, do it yourself

My sorta-cheese icon. Please feel free to gack or improve upon!

PSA: Personal shoppers

Relevant to a thread hrj's got going re: bored with wardrobe issues: Budget Fashionista's How To Find A Personal Shopper.

It links over to the Association of Image Consultants International, and I'm not sure whether to be amazed or taken aback that the western world is so devoted to personal image that there is an entire industry and accompanying professional organization to boot devoted to helping people dress better.

Tangential: I suppose I should not be surprised. Right now I'm reading a whole book about the role of clothes in defining the nobility/upper middle class in early modern England, so it's not like this is new.

stuff that works

1. Jumping jacks - even as few as 10 - get my heart pumping, clearing my head, waking me back up after a long day and making all manner of further stretches more bearable and effective.


2. Like it or not, my first glove - stinky, stained, crumpled leather - fits better and has better grip than my washable synthetic glove, making bladework and the essential parry-riposte that much easier. Will be using this glove from now on.


3. Breathe - no, really. Slow, rhythmic breathing may seem more yoga than fencing, but it improves my endurance like NOTHING ELSE! I don't wind up wheezing like Darth Vader on a bad day by the end of one bout.

Did better tonight than I have in a long time just with these 3 small changes.

I am drenched and full on exhausted with the beginnings of blisters on toes and fingers. This is good as usually I tap out long before either have a chance to happen :)

Am fencing Sunday, next Thurs. and possibly an additional day before the competition next Saturday.