Woody Cavenaugh

With the title alone, I am sure that a great number of sword wielding individuals are loosening up their flame fingers as you read this, so I'd better get to the point right away and capitalize on my second intention. For the last several years fencing clubs and the USFA as a whole has had a marvelous period of membership growth that lead to larger better competitions, better fencers, and a stronger international national program.

Recently clubs and the USFA have begun to notice a decline in the growth rate. In some clubs its turned into a run away shrink rate. I am going to tell you why. Some of you may have already figured it out. For some of you it will be a surprise, not because it is some deep dark secret, its simply because you have never thought of it from this angle.

It has nothing to do with the price of membership.
It has nothing to do with rules changes.
It has nothing to do with rating systems, sportsmanship, or the price of gear.

It has to do with the movies.

Compare a list of the membership numbers for the past ten years with a list of the top grossing movies of the last ten years. You will find a spike that coincides with Olympic years and you will see increases that coincide with the release of each installment of The Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, and Pirates of the Caribbean, Star Wars. The unwitting secret of our recent successes has been adventure movies. Now that we have no movies with swords, we've lost the wind in our free publicity sails.

Now we have two choices, we can go out and get some swashbuckling movies made, which is possible with our diverse talent pool, or we can bite the bullet and actually market our sport at the level where people will see it. Clearly one of these is cheaper and easier than the other, but if you are the gambling sort you can surely see the appeal of the other. Plus, hey if nothing else we have more movies with swords to go see with our club mates.

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 8:15 PM | Permalink

I believe the Age of the Genius has come and gone. Sure, we have modern day geniuses, Kurzweil, and Hawking certainly count among them. But the golden age has passed and unless we as a society change, it will never return. I think the notes on Kurzweil's wikipedia entry sums it up pretty well.

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Da Vinci, a definite genius drew out designs for tanks, helicopters, parachutes, and many other things that were simply not possible to create in his day because there weren't materials strong enough, or light enough, to make the designs function as designed. Forget about the whole issue of powering the powered devices. These designs weren't published until after his death. I am sure he must have realized that people seeing a design for some amazing thing that they didn't have the technology to build would tarnish his reputation. If it can't be done, it isn't possible right? Therefore if he's designing the impossible, then he must be a nut right?

Prior to him in time genius was next to heresy. We all learned in school about people with great ideas that where seriously pooped upon by organized religion. I'm not picking on organized religion, I'm picking on the poop. People as a rule tend to mock or outright attack what they do not understand. It used to be that organized religion was responsible for stomping out free thinking and radical ideas. Today this task is sponsored by Zoloft and Prozac, and championed by well meaning people who when confronted with something they don't understand, attempt to "help" the situation through intervention, butterfly nets, involuntary institutionalization, and outright ridicule, via the internet.

Before the Industrial Revolution a genius might tell a few friends, or publish a book that only a few could read, and those tended to fear new ideas. During the industrial revolution, mankind's attitude changed and we lived in an age where anything was possible. Edison, Tesla, Bell, Colt, names that defined new ways of seeing and harnessing the world. These radical thinkers became heroes of the age. Now a person of genius has an idea, they probably create a website, the people who fear what they do not understand get a hold of it and ten websites spring up all trying to drag the genius back into the quagmire of normalcy. The people that do not understand, can't even attack the idea well because they don't understand it. Its like what would have happened if Da Vinci had published the design for the helicopter the day after he thought of it. He would have been ridiculed. Him, personally. Sure the ridicule would have been wrapped in a poor understanding of his idea, but they would have attacked the man. If the genius is to survive in this day and age they have to work alone and in secret. They may live and die in poverty believe to be a kook by everyone around them and all because the one missing piece they need to make their idea a reality is brewing in secret in someone else's mind. We have a tool that could allow the genius power of the world to unite into a new golden age of invention and it has been hijacked by Luddites.

It makes me sad to think that I can't grow four inches taller, shoot lightning bolts from my butt, and fly because someone out there is too afraid of being locked up and medicated, by the people who have made the decision that it can't be done because they aren't doing it already.

Thanks for ruining it for the rest of us.

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 8:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Yesterday I happened to read an article about some real life costumed crusaders, and I have to admit it set my mind a whirl. Why is all this so familiar? People putting on fancy uniforms and going out into the real world facing ridicule and worse to do good deeds. There is something that makes me think a person could gain a lot of satisfaction by adopting the way of the mask. Have I done this before in a different life perhaps?

Even Greensboro has one. Sharp costume, clear goals, a myspace page, what more could a city want?

Of course there are some who have perhaps lost the way and turned to vigilantism, but those guys will get sorted out in the end. If they don't break the law themselves the criminals will likely break them. Criminals like their police to follow the rules. Its what gives the criminal their biggest advantage and costumed vigilantes take away that advantage and replace rules with brightly colored spandex. Darwinism will sort it all out in the end.

The rest of them however are on a very positive path, and I salute them. Salute? Why is that so familiar?

Easily recognized uniforms, good deeds, charity work, values. A group of people who are trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, curious, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent. Yeah, I think I could find a place among them.

Wait a minute! I have! I was a Cub Scout, Webloe, and Boy Scout! But now I'm adult, and the Boy Scouts ends around 18 (at least it did for me). This is the next logical step! I'm trading the brown and the green with the scarf and the belt for a cowl and in some cases a cape (optional). That's what has been missing all this time, a civic organization!

I'm going to need to do some shopping before I apply for membership...

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 11:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I am an IT generalist. Geek of all trades. Ever since I was a young child it was impressed upon me the importance of being a generalist and never specializing. The argument is that though the specialist always makes more money, they become pigeon holed to the point that if their specialty dries up they are completely sunk, type casted into a job description they cannot escape from.

The world of Information Technology (or "working with computers" for all you non-geeks) as an ocean of work that is as vast as it is deep. I have sailed the surface of most of it. Arguably the only parts of the sea I haven't sailed fully are programing and networking, though I can snoop around code and I can set up a home network, I have never worked doing either.

I have taken classes in deeper topics but would never test because certifications lead to being defined by those very pieces of paper, and I don't want to be defined by a certificate in a filing cabinet.

I am proud of being nimble and capable of picking up new and different things quickly. My problem is that I am about to run into a whole mess of sargassum and my best chance is to either dive under it by specializing, or leaving the pond entirely and getting into a different industry entirely. Both have their merits, but I'm leaning towards specialization. The money is way better than starting something else, and if the work dries up, I can always find a new non-IT ocean to dive in somewhere else.

Its a paradigm shift for me, but one I'm not too scared of. Its not the deep water that scares me, its the fact that I will be farther from the sky.

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 4:35 PM | Permalink

We've of late been kicking around the idea of moving into town and giving up the 5 acres on the river and the 40 hours a month commuting to and from it. We would be giving up the low tax rate of the non-Guilford counties, and would be picking up the additional high tax rate of Greensboro city.

As we weighed the pro's and con's the other night over coffee suddenly my darling Sara made a statement which really took the wind out of the sails of urban movement. She said: "I'm not entirely sure you're civilized enough to move into Greensboro."

Wow... Its a true and telling statement. There is a kind of freedom is hard to find, and far few will ever know its joy. Am I really ready to give up peeing outdoors in the buff?

This will take some pondering.

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 5:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Can't talk, up to my elbows in binary alligators.
Its upgrade time and the upgrade is downgrading me at every turn.
Letters, numbers, what does it all mean? http 500 is good right?
Loves me some command prompt, would you mind speaking a little slower please?
Coffee? Where's the coffee? I drank all the coffee? How can this be?
I dream in batch files. Woe is me!
Follow these instructions just like we wrote them. You did? Great!
Follow these instructions just like we wrote them. Except for page four.
Whoops. Our bad. Our fault. Got time for a conference call?
We're in a different time zone. Looks like I'm working late.
Ring! Ring! Gotta go again.

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 4:28 PM | Permalink

My nights have a pattern that goes something like this. We go to bed, I fall asleep first. After this point any hopes or dreams of a night of uninterrupted sleep are over. Forget it. Not mine. On the other hand, should I ever be allowed to breed, I will have the feeding schedule nicely imprinted, and well practiced. The rest of the night goes as follows.

At some point in the night the dog will want to go out and will start making doggie noises. Eventually this wakes Sara enough that she groans, hits, or kicks me awake. I get up and let the dog out. I lay down on the couch to sleep. The dog barks at the door. I get up and open the door. The dog didn't want in though, the dog just wanted backup. The dog now having backup runs off into the darkness to face whatever it is he needed backup for. Unamused, I go back to sleep on the couch. The dog comes to the door and barks to be let back in. This time he comes in. Repeat entire process two to three times a night.

Last night however, something else happened. Something interesting, something science-y. I go to the couch and start to move the orange blanket out of the way so I can lay down. Unknown to me however our orange cat is sleeping there already. My hand brushes the cat. ZAPP! Lightning springs from my hands to the cat. The cat is not amused. I am amused. I saw sparks!

I begin to take a real interest in petting the cat. Sparks are leaping between my hand and the cats fur to the point that it is illuminating the cat in the darkness. Not just one spark but a symphony of sparks, a tiny thunderstorm in my hand. This is awesome! For the cat, not so much. Tired of being the source of my pleasure, he wanders off to find a place to sleep where he won't get electrocuted.

Fine. Be that way.

I go to sleep on the couch. Continue loop.

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 9:31 AM | Permalink

I'm not one to make resolutions for the new years. I've probably done it but I knew the whole time I was only setting myself up for failure. I love resolutions, I love the way the squeal when I ignore them and do what ever I want. I'm not one to do something I don't want to do, therefore there isn't anything I would actually want to stop doing on purpose. I have done something on accident and chosen not to do it again. But I like fried chicken, therefore I'm going to keep on eating it, to hell with the consequences. If I suddenly decide that the pleasure isn't worth the pain, I'll stop doing it. All this said, today I'm talking about what I am going to do about fencing in 2008.

I hope that before July I manage to renew my membership in the USFA. I have no interest in competition, but I like the magazine. I am going to return to the salle two nights a week. If I have the opportunity to do three nights a week, I hope I don't. I'd like to do something else also. Fiddle lessons come to mind. I've always wanted to play an instrument.

I also hope to eat less real food, and more simulated food product. It doesn't require cooking, doesn't take much time to eat, and cleans up easily. Plus shopping becomes a breeze. No thinking about menus, variety, or expiration dates. There will always be chicken of course. I like chicken and I can get that on the drive home.

As for fencing...well, yeah. Two nights a week, and no competition, that about sums it up.

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 2:26 PM | Permalink

Back to work with me! Time to take my place as a cog among the gears of outrageous technology. Time to catch up on world events, web comics, and the lives of those around me. The days of watching seasons of television one boxed set at a time are done (for now).

One beauty of this is we are completely unaffected by the writer's strike. Instead of having to be in front of the boob tube at a given moment and discover it is a new episode or a rerun we sit in front of the boob tube and grind through episode after episode in order without commercial interruption. Be sure to hit pause if we go to the john, and please bring me a drink from the fridge on the way back. Hey? Isn't that why the writer's struck (striked?) in the first place? Not my problem, hate it for them. Truth be told it is obvious to me that the writers need to get a cut of the DVD sales. Duh. They wrote it. If they aren't striking for money for DVD sales then I hope its a good reason and not simply greed. My guess is it isn't greed, because studio's, distribution houses and groups like the RIAA have cornered the market on greed and there simply isn't enough greed to go around.

But I have not only digressed, I've derailed, in my devious desire to demean, those demons that demand dividends that belong to the artist.

...meanwhile back at the wheel... I've had some incubation time to think on what I'm going to do now. I'm not talking about what I'm going to do when I grow up. I still want to be a fencing coach who writes novels by day and fights crime as a caped and cowled crusader by night. Short term, you know, just to pay the bills until my duckies are lined up I thought I might spend a little time becoming educated enough to do the job I'm in. I'm not talking about being a specialist, I see no need to place my humble self into a career extinction scenario. I don't ever want to stop being a Jack of All Trades, but I think I might be a little more relaxed in the short term if I dug just a little deeper into skills of the moment.

Who can say, I may even have need of the skill boost when I start being a super hero. Its not like I'm quitting my day job right a way you know, just do it part time at first and on the weekends and work up to a full time writing, teaching, caped crusader role. Exploding ax heads and powered battle armor isn't cheep.

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 6:03 PM | Permalink

Dudes, I'm bushed. As the official designated driver at last night's hoo ha courtesy of Cam and Steve I had fun of a different sort. I might even be the only person to remember the details, so I am free to make stuff as I see fit. That's fun!

Also fun, (eventually) was karaoke games until the wee hours of the AM. I am not the star player, usually I fight for the position of not last. Playing karaoke games with the handicap of having to be sober bites. When you're drinking, you are more relaxed and you feel you are better than you actually are. That boost to your confidence actually makes you better than you actually would be sober.

I was bad, I was not an American Idol, I knew I was not an American Idol, and that made me worse. Because I was sober I knew it. The only plus side was that since everyone else was drunk they didn't really realize how bad I really was. Game after game I was dead last the the only one who cared was me. I suspect that has more to do with the fact that none of THEM held the position of sucks worst.

So, Sara and I get back to the leaking submarine we have to call home at 4:30am, and I started the black eyed peas in the crock pot. I love crock pots, I love the way I can sleep through the cooking part. Sara got me up at about 9:30 this morning, we have work tomorrow and we need to get back into a normal sleep rhythm.

Happy new year gang! Don't forget to eat your beans. Also remember this important entertainment tip from me. Being designated driver means that when someone's had too much to drink and gets free and easy with their clothing, you not only get to see it, you get to remember it too. :)

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 11:25 AM | Permalink