Updates and Upgrade

If you’re a returning reader to this blog you may have already realized what this blog is about. I updated and upgraded the website. This blog will touch on that, as well as the last month of my foam fighting journey and a little discussion on current and future content.

The Website

So, this is the new website! I’ve been wanting to update it and modernize it for several months now; ever since I saw Saint Godric’s website. The link goes to his YouTube, sadly it seems he has taken the website down. I wanted to create something that was more cohesive and a little less clunky looking. Hopefully I’ve succeeded. Any feedback would be appreciated!

The Paint

One of my goals with this website overhaul was to create something that is more cohesive. I’ve decided on my “brand colors” and I’m going to be slowly overhauling all my social media outlets to match. It’s very similar to the colors I’ve already used, it’s purple and yellow, but I’ve finally settled on the specific shade of those colors.

The theme I’m using also adds a few little touches here and there, such as a slight outline on the drop down menus and a slight animation as the submenus appear. It’s a small but nice touch. Additionally the font used in this theme makes it easier to read the menus as well as the content itself. Oh and there is a light and dark mode toggle now!

I also chose to go with a two column look. The larger one for the main content and the smaller one for the side bar. I hope this will help make the content more central to the webpage experience.

The Upgrade

On top of wanting the website to looker a little nicer, I wanted it to run smoother and be built on a more modern WordPress theme. The one I used had a lot of utility, more than most themes, but it was dated and built upon older versions of WordPress. To the theme’s creators credit, they have continually provided updates as the editions of WordPress changed.

There is less utility in the one I’m using now, but it should load a bit quicker and now it has animations that give it a bit of a more modern feeling. I’ll try not to over use them! This theme was also built to use the block editor, so, in theory, I should have to tinker less, which will be nice.

I’ve also worked on the backend to reduce the plugins I’ve used to cobble together the previous website. I’m also looking at alternative plugins to help run the site and take advantage of newer WordPress features. The Table of contents at the top of this blog is result of that effort.

Going Forward

The work is not done. There are still backend issues I have to work on. There was only so much testing I could do before making what I’ve done so far go live. Now that it is live I need to check on past content and make sure that it still works. I have to make sure none of the plugins that make this site work broke. Things might be wonky for a few days or maybe even a weeks.

I’m also looking at adding more functionality and paring down what I have on the website so it’s easier to find what you’re looking for. Most of the content will stay, but it’s been a while since I’ve tinkered with the Resources and Store sections. I think they are due for some attention. That might end up being the subject of another blog, if there are enough changes that I have something to blather on about.

In the mean time, if you happen to be browsing the website and something isn’t working, or it looks wonky, please let me know! I’ve added a little contact me form that you can e-mail me with!

Foam Fighting Updates

I’ve still been going to fighter practice! With the exception of one week where I was visiting friends up in Seattle for the weekend and attended Inland Ocean’s Day of the Ditch. I have continued to see gains, even if there have been some struggles.

The last few weeks have blended together. It makes it hard to write a good blog about my journey. I think in the future I will sit down after each fighter practice and write a little bit about the experience. Then after a few weeks, when I have enough to say. I’ll take those paragraphs and turn them into a proper blog for everyone to read.

The Struggle Is Real

In the last blog, I mostly talked about the tournament I entered. You can read it HERE. The thing I would like to highlight from that post is my emotional state. I stopped fighting halfway through fighter practice, partly because I wanted to save my energy for the next day, but also because I lost steam. Then the next day, leading up and into the tournament I was dealing with anxious thoughts, thoughts that nearly led to me to not competing.

Despite having an overall, very positive experience at the tournament, I found myself struggling to find the energy to go to the following week’s fighter practice. I’m using the word energy, because motivation isn’t the right descriptor. I was just as motivated, maybe even more so, after the tournament, than I was before. I just didn’t have the energy.

Part of this is the struggle of living with long term depression. Even when I’ve been doing well for a few weeks, or even a few months, it can creep back in and sap my will to do anything. Sometimes this can be as drastic as not eating or even getting out of bed. In this case it was getting dressed, driving the forty minutes and actually doing physical activity.

Despite this urge to stay home, I did go, but it was a struggle. I fought for an hour and I had to push myself. I ended up stopping halfway though the practice and sat down to watch. I’d reached my limit and I was drained. I don’t consider it a waste, I got some excersize, but I was on rails. Being mindful of my fighting wasn’t something I could do that day, I didn’t focus on improving anything or even paying attention to ways I could win. I was there purely to get exercise and not to work on my foam fighting. Still, the fact that I went was very encouraging.

Small Tweaks

Luckily the other practices went much better. I was mindful of my fighting and tried to work on various small things. I continued to work on my movement, taking bigger steps. I’ve also started to take some time to work on positioning and fakes.

I finally released some SKBC videos! The big one was Combat Computer with Dalos. Editing it really got me thinking back to recording the class and the things I took away from it concerning planning for fights and being mindful. The two smaller videos, Fakes with Drakknar and Implied Pressure with Dalos got me thinking about how to better incorporate fakes and how to manipulate fights with the pressure of my movements.

I’ve also been working on the Short Sword class I recorded and I just finished the first pass on the part where they talked about two guards; the inner and outer guard. I have not thought about my guard in any active way for a long time. I have developed a standard guard I take and then I just kind of go with the flow, making sure to return to my guard after attacking.

This last practice I took some time thinking about how to better utilize the the two guard types. I didn’t make any changes to my standard guard last practice. I am not ready to tinker with that yet, but I am setting myself up for playing with different guards by being more mindful of the guards I naturally use.

Looking Forward

I worry that there will come a point where I will be so depressed that I won’t want to make the trip to fighter practice. I’m very surprised I was able to push myself to go that time after the tournament. It’s a good sign. Luckily nothing like that has happened since, but it easily could again and next time I might not be able to make myself go.

I will continue to go to fighter practice and I will slowly start to introduce more complexity with my fighting as I feel I can manage it. I’m still dealing with building up my physical self after years of a sedentary life. In some ways, i have shaken off the rust, some basic functionality has returned but I still have a ways to go.

Physically I don’t have the movement and endurance I once had or the flexibility. Those will only return through hard work and practice. My shots and arm speed are on par with what they used to be, limited by the previously mentioned physical issues.

The mental rust, however, is much more managed. I’m not speaking about the mental game in regards to tournaments, but more about switching to a fighting mentality. I’m once again curious about how to fight, how others fight, how I fight and how I can improve. It’s been an interesting mind shift back to what I had many years ago. I look forward to where this journey will take me.

Content Musings

It’s been a month since I posted my first YouTube Update Video. it feels much longer. In that video I mused about various ideas for content I could bring to the channel. At the time I was worried I would be out of content to post, that’s one of the reasons I posted the Update Video. I didn’t have any other LARP videos ready. Since then I’ve recorded a bunch of fighting and that is no longer an immediate issue.

This has let me take longer to think about other content I would like to bring to the platform. I would like to take a few minutes to write about some ideas I have.

World Building

I’ve put in a lot of work on building a setting I use for LARP and for Dungeons and Dragons, called Shattered Kingdoms. One thing I’d like to do is bring that work into the Channel, I’m just not sure how. The beset idea I have is a video about how I take world elements and implement it into LARP.

The issue I see is that a video like that I feel lacks some context. In my mind it should be a video in the middle of a series of videos about the subject. I’m just having problem coming up with the videos that would go before and after that video. I’m open to any suggestions you might have!

Dungeons and Dragons

I’m a D&D nerd, always have been. I don’t play TTRPGs like I used to when I was younger. Every weekend (sometimes it was twice) is more than I can handle these days but it’s still a big part of who I am. I would like to bring that love to this channel in some fashion. I tried in the past, but it was based on streams and, well, I don’t stream regularly anymore.

I’m not certain how to incorporate TTRPGs into my YouTube channel, but I feel that it isn’t to far off topic. I just need to think of a good way to bridge the gap. I’m just at a loss of how I should do that. I think it would be appropriate, especially when I think about adding world building videos.

My First Q&A Video

I really want to do a questions and answers video. It looks like a lot of fun, the problem is, you need to get questions from people. I’ve reached out to a few people for questions and I’ve gotten some good ones. I’m keeping a list, but it is pretty small. It certainly isn’t big enough to make a video yet.

To that end, if you have any questions for me, I’d be happy to take them and add them to the list. In the future I’ll probably make another post about doing a Q&A video asking for questions again. I can’t wait to make this video.

Final Thoughts

What was supposed to be a simple Blog Update turned into three mini blogs. Hopefully you enjoyed reading through my thoughts. I know I enjoyed writing them down. I had honestly been putting this off for a few days, I couldn’t seem to find the right words to start. Starting is often times the hardest part about blogging.

I’m enjoying tinkering with my website again. It’s been a while since I’ve done so. Having this fresh coat of paint is allowing me to make bigger changes than i have in a long time. Hopefully when I’m done it will be a much better experience for everyone.

I have several fighting videos, a LARP Chats and two knighting videos to edit and release. Despite having all that content in the works, I am still eager to create some videos about world building and Dungeons and Dragons. I just need to figure out how those videos will look.

Until next time, stay inspired, stay excited and keep fighting