I went over to Kevin's place for dinner tonight. I took the bus over to his apartment complex that I refer to as "the church dorms" (cuz it always annoys him). I chilled over at Danny & Tim's place first, then we (joined by Edward) went over to Kevin's place where he made Chinese food for us. It was the first "real" Chinese food I've had while in Austin I think. But yea, they kinda made me down all the leftovers, so I was reeeaaaally full when I left.

...and on the way home, a bird pooped on my face. Good thing for eyebrows.

I woke up this morning and switched off my alarm clock at 7:30, and for some reason, my brain processed it wrong and I thought it meant 8:30, which would mean that I'd already missed half of my class. So I decided to switch off the alarm clock and just sleep rather than walk to class and sit in for like 5 minutes (I thought). Then, at the real 8:30, I woke up again, and this time I was thinking a little more clearly, and it dawned on me what had happened. I felt pretty dang stupid. Man, I think that's a serious problem of mine: whenever I look at a clock, I really only pay attention to the minutes, and completely disregard the hour. Blarrrg, it's always stupid mishaps like this that cause me to unintentionally skip class. =/

So UCLA was on spring break this week, and Andrew (K.) and Tracy came to visit. On Thursday, I decided to forego homework to chill out with Andrew and his posse. Didn't do much- just sat around and chatted. On Friday, Tracy and Rex had wings with me and the guys. Afterwards, some of us went to LeFun; I decided I'm gonna start building up a character for Gauntlet Legends instead of starting over every time.

Saturday night, there was a Lambda party. I went with my brother's friends Jeni & Sandy. Man, I got pretty wasted (again =/); it's the first time that my vision has been noticeably blurred- it took me a long time to recognize some of my friends. I had a good time, but today at lunch, several people said to me, "yea, I heard you had a LOT of fun last night." Which is kinda weird; I mean, yea it was fun, but if everyone's telling me I had that much fun, maybe I just don't remember. =/ Man, it's kinda funny and kinda sad when you have to hear how much fun you had from other people to know, haha.

Took a dynamics test today. Didn't do all that hot. Man, I'm really getting behind in that (and every other) class. So yea, last time I secretly took like almost 3 hours for the dynamics test, but this time they kicked us out after 2, so I didn't really finish. And man, during the test, 3 of my erasers broke! Man, it must be the gypsy curse!

*We recently had the door of our room "fixed." It's opens almost completely silently now, but as a side-effect, it doesn't close on it's own anymore. It really bugs the hell out of me, but Nien loves it- he says it encourages people to wander in. But I guess that's exactly what I hate; I mean, why would I want strangers wandering in? And since coming to college, I've become pretty paranoid about locking my door (; probably because they hype us up with all these stories about theft and stuff). And I guess it used to bug me a little before when we'd both leave the dorm and didn't lock the door, but at least it would swing closed and kinda discourage entry. Now, sometimes I'll come back to an empty room with the door wide open, and it's just like nyaaaaagggghhhh! It just irks me when I'm sitting here in the room and Nien leaves the door open. I guess it kind of feels like an opening or weakness or vulnerability of some sort- kinda like how cowboy gunfighters in the old days didn't sit with their backs to a door cuz they were afraid their enemies would sneak in and shoot 'em in the back all of a sudden... yea, I guess it's something like that.

So the pass/fail deadline was today, and also the last day to drop a class. I was thinking really hard about dropping my management class, MAN320F... I was originally gonna pass/fail it, but then I found out it would be worthless if I did, and I wouldn't be able to get the business foundations certificate. So I was thinking about dropping it and taking it again another semester. I mean, is it worth it to have your GPA screwed over by a non-required elective? I sucked it up on the first test cuz I bought the wrong textbook, and that makes it just about impossible to make an A. Ugghhh...

I was pretty close to dropping... I had the forms filled out and everything, but as the deadline came and passed, I decided not to turn the form in. I guess part of it was cuz that woulda dropped me down to 13 hours, which I consider to be a bit too weak-sauce. And I talked to my mom about it on the phone, and she told me that if I was gonna be that worried about maintaining a 4.0 until graduation, it'd be a looooooong four years. I thought it over, and I guess it's true: I can't run away from my problems forever. So here I am- facing down the storm... knowingly letting my 4.0 slip out of my hands...

I took the Texas government test today. UT is kinda weird about accepting AP government credit- they make you take their own Texas gov. test also before they'll give you credit for government I. Actually, all Texas schools are gay about government- I mean, why the hell would non-residents need to know about the Texas government? Yet everyone is required to take it... suxorz. Anyways, the test wasn't very easy, but whatever... I just need to pass and I'll be happy.

So me and a couple friends were eating lunch at the union, and our conversation wandered to the topic of cannibalism. And playing devil's advocate (as I often do), I portrayed the practice in a favorable light and espoused some pretty controversial notions. Well, this shady-looking old lady had been eavesdropping on us, and as we were leaving, she came up to us and proceeded to tell me (in her broken english) how "bad" I was. And she told my friends that they shouldn't associate with me, and she was like, "yea, you go. Get out of here," as we were walking away. Man, I dunno, I mean, I may have been making statements that she didn't agree with, but geez, calling me a bad person to my face? That hurts, lady. She was really mean about it... I hope it wasn't like some sort of gypsy/hobo curse or something.

I finished up watching SciFi's "Children of Dune" this weekend. I think I liked the original "Dune" better. Maybe it's cuz I actually read Dune but not the two books that the new movie was based on. The story was interesting, but I guess it's saddening to see the legacy of the character(s) you've gotten to know destroyed. There were a lot of good quotes from the movie, like: "Every revolution carries within it the seeds of its own destruction..." But yea, seems like most of my friends aren't familiar with the book series, but do know the game Dune 2 (the definitive RTS) which is based on the book(s).

*Man, I just realized that the side of my chest hurts like hell when I cough. I hope I didn't break a rib or something falling off my bed. =/

AUUGGGHHH... I rolled out of my bed (on the top bunk) and fell a good 5 ft onto my side. I bruised my knee and shoulder I think. Ouch. That's the first time it's ever happened; I've never even come close before. Man, my friends must have jinxed me... they were talking about it just yesterday, and now it happens. Good thing there's carpet, otherwise I might have been hurt a lot worse. Man, I thought it was rather ominous when my Wing Gundam figurine fell off my table and broke its wings off... I bet it was trying to tell me something, haha.

*I've had chicken wings 5 times in the past week. On Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday with Tony & Terry, on Friday with Kent, and Saturday with my brother & Alan's posse. I'm getting noticeably chunkier, hahaha. But yea, man, I realized how much I hate the pointy segment that's occasionally on wings (on Plucker's but not WingZone)- I can't get any meat out of 'em, and then I feel all guilty cuz it's a waste of potential food. And it's weird- they're called chicken wings, but everyone I know prefers the mini-drumsticks over the actual wings. Maybe a re-naming is in order.

I've spent like $20 this weekend at the arcades. Much of it was spent at Einstein's playing Time Crisis 3, but a significant portion was also spent at LeFun on Trophy Hunter. It's a lot easier than Deer Hunter; I got the high score for both bear and moose, mwahaha.

So Erika came and visited from A&M. Didn't do a whole lot. Ate and went to the arcades- that's about it.

And last night, TASA went and played broomball. I found out it's a lot harder than it looks and sounds. The sticks are too small, so I ended up kicking the ball as much as whacking it with the stick. Ended up with bruised shins, hahaha.

"Cry 'Havoc,' and let slip the dogs of war." ~Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar"

The US has just made the first move in the war. Events have been set in motion that no protest can stop now. As much as I hate the concept of the war, now that it's in progress, it is futile to resist. I still don't support the war, but as long as we're fighting, I'll support our troops. Let's just hope this all concludes quickly.

war is imminent... @%$#@#!

My Opinions on the War. I reeeeaaaaally didn't want this war to happen, but I had a feeling it was coming. I just don't support the war at all. I don't think the war is as necessary as Bush makes it out to be. Why is it that we (America) think that it's so necessary to fight, and yet the rest of the world disagrees? If the threat is so great and if we have so much evidence, wouldn't the rest of the world be a little bit more convinced? And really, what's so different now that makes an attack so necessary that hasn't been just as true for all of the last 12 years? I think we're still desperately looking for someone to pound in retaliation for the 9-11 attacks- we just weren't satisfied by Afghanistan.

And I can't help but think that the Bush administration has some ulterior motives in this war, namely oil. Oil and money, money and oil... there's been speculation that part of the reason that France opposes war is cuz of it's oil dealings with Iraq. And one should never forget that Bush is a former oil baron; I'm sure his decisions are at least partially influenced by profits for him and his buddies. But also, doesn't it seem like Bush is simply finishing up "daddy's war"? Completing his dad's unfinished business, settling a family grudge or whatever. And then you've gotta think about the costs of war- the monetary ones in addition to the countless lives. Wars just cost a lot to fight. Our economy is already in the hole, and this would only dig us deeper into debt and deficit. After you go in and rough up a country, it seems that somewhere the rules say you have to help them rebuild. Rebuilding costs probably just as much, if not more than war- time and money. And hey, we're already skimping on our promises to help rebuild Afghanistan. And are we going to end up simply replacing one bad leader with another whose views are slightly more pro-American (as we have in the past)? The US has a pretty shady past, actually- Shah Reza Pahlavi is the one that comes to mind, with the oil and whatnot. International politics are motivated by money.

One thing that bugs me is the hypocrisy of our stance against Iraq. We say the war is necessary cuz we've got a hunch that Iraq possesses weapons of mass destruction and is playing games with the inspectors. Yet what about North Korea? Here's a country that we know has the capability to produce nukes in the near future and has kicked out the inspectors from their country. They've pulled out of International treaties (non-proliferation and test ban). And they actually have a sophisticated enough knowledge of rocketry to shoot a missile all the way to the United States. You tell me which one seems like a bigger problem. Yet here we are saying that Iraq's gotta go, and we sit and do nothing to North Korea- not even negotiate.

And the whole idea of a "pre-eminent attack" being justified baffles me. I mean, who gets to decide what constitutes a serious enough threat that you should attack first and be a threat towards someone else. I think our move sets a very bad precedent for the start of future wars; wars'll erupt with less warning, just cuz somebody had a "hunch." And also, we basically declared war without UN approval (another bad precedent)- the UN says our war isn't justified, yet we're going ahead nonetheless. I think this move singlehandedly rendered the UN irrelevant; if we can go to war without them saying it's ok, then what's to stop anyone else from doing the same? It may have been true from the start and just needed to be proved, but the UN appears powerless now. To hell with what the world thinks- the US does what it wants. What the US says, goes.

Man, I'm sick of the US always taking the stance of moral superiority; what makes us think we're always the ones in the right? You know, the reason we're the target of terrorism is cuz our foreign policy is so bad. No one wants us in the Middle East, yet we continue to stick our noses in people's business over there, thinking we're some kinda god-chosen referee for things. It reminds me of the Christian missionaries of old trying to convert the Native Americans; geez, no one asked to be "saved." And now the war's gonna cause all sorts of repercussions in international politics. Muslim countries'll hate us more than they do already, and the countries that used to be our allies seem to be turning against us. We're losing credibility on the international scene.

But yea, going back to how Muslim countries hate us, the war is incentive for terrorists to strike- it's just adding fuel to their fire. I think we're gonna see a notable rise in terrorism and anti-American activity cuz of our actions. And I mean, Saddam's obviously not gonna fight us in a straight up war- even he must know we hold the sheer military advantage. So how do you fight to win when you're the underdog? Well, guerilla warfare worked in Vietnam against our troops, and we thought it was cowardly as hell... but the fact remains, it worked. There's all kinds of dirty ways to fight a war. We're limited by the fact that we like to bring our troops home after a conflict; they aren't. I fear for our troops. I fear for all the innocents.

"War is hell." ~William Tecumseh Sherman

uggghhhh... waking up at 7:30 is so painful after waking up around noon for a week. bleeehhhhh...

Finally went to grab some pho for lunch around 2:00 with YiLin, Alan, HwaYen, Rex, Pearl, Vivian, and Minnie. Then a brief game of Time Crisis 3 at Einstein's before heading over to Bobioca. We just chillaxed for the longest time, and I think I said some stuff that'll get me in trouble later, hahaha, d'oh! So yea, when we finally left, it was 5:something already. Dang... there went my entire Sunday. =/

So I went clubbing last night for the first time in ages. Vivian's visiting here in Austin from New York. It ended up only being me, Rex, Pearl, and Vivian that went to the club- everyone else got to Kent's place and then decided to bail. But yea, I didn't have anything for dinner before going to Kent's place for *glug glug*, so I was out of it really fast, and I didn't sober up for basically the entire night. I had a blast though. We'd originally intended to go to Club Zero Degrees; I don't remember how or why, but we ended up at Paradox, as usual. We finished up the night by grabbing some food at Kirbey Lane (equivalent of IHOP) and got home around 4:00ish. Rex stayed over. I didn't sleep well at all. A lot of tossing and turning. I woke up in the middle of the night, and my pulse was around 120 bpm and wouldn't slow down for the longest time. Finally rolled out of bed close to noon; my stomach was killing me.

*Oh yea, and I came home with this weird crescent shaped wound on my outer bicep. It looks like I was bitten by an animal or a small child... How odd. I think I got it from running into a pole or parking meter though; that's the only thing I can think of that makes any sense.

back in hell... again

Spring Break, the recap
So Spring break was rather pleasantly unproductive. I'm relaxed, but still not ready for school to start up again any time soon. Let's see what happened...

I came back on Friday night. I had some pearl tea from Bobioca before leaving, and so towards Dallas, I had to pee sooooooo bad, and my brother wouldn't stop for the longest time. Yea, well anyways, when I got home, I busted out my brother's stack of movies on cd and watched MIB2.

On Saturday, I woke up in time for lunch at Osaka, went home and watched The Musketeer and Me, Myself, & Irene. Then I went and played mahjong with Cali.

Watched Cradle 2 the Grave in the theater with the guys on Sunday night. I didn't think it was all that awesome.

On Monday, Kent threw another one of his bbq's at Teresa's place- mmmMMMM good. Went to kung fu not too long afterwards. Uggghhh, couldn't kick cuz I was too full. Stamina is gone again (as expected). After kung fu, I went to Allen's place and played Magic: The Gathering with our magic crew. Me & Michael whupped up!

Watched Memento on Tuesday. It was really [interesting] to watch, but I didn't like the way it ended. Then I was gonna go catch a 50 cent movie with John & Michael, but apparently, Yahoo! movies can't be trusted for accurate schedules. =/ So we ended up at John's place watching videos on his computer. Check out the Animatrix; it's like a tie-in to the Matrix movie. Very cool.

On Wednesday night, we had a semi-party for Michael's b-day. It didn't turn out quite as planned- we had to abort our aruba (aka chow-chow beating) plans. For those of you who aren't familiar with the "aruba," the usual explanation is as such: hold your left index finger up vertically and your right hand in a peace-sign with the V in the horizontal plane. Now turn the V so that the opening is facing leftward towards the upright finger. Proceed to move the right hand quickly leftward so that it strikes the upright finger in the gap of the fingers. Now pull back and repeat the striking motion several times. So yea, I don't know why we always use that hand gesture to explain (as we always do) when we always have to clarify with words anyways: So basically, four guys each grab a hold of one of the victim's limbs and then they carry him with his legs spread out and run his crotch into a pole. Sounds painful, huh? But yea, it's really more just to freak the victim out rather than to actually perform unto completion. Come to think of it, I think I've only seen the aruba successfully performed once- wouldn't ya know, it was on Michael, hahaha. Ok, but anyways...
Well, we all met up at Main Event first, but that wasn't very amusing, and half the people left from there. Then we went and watched Daredevil in the theatre. I think Spiderman was much better. Then me, Kent, and Rex went over to Irene's place for food.

On Thursday I watched Hero again, this time with english subtitles. And I was like ooooohhhh, so THAT's what the movie's about. I get it now. For dinner, the family had a huge seafood feast of crawfish, lobster, and crab. I overate; my stomach hurt afterwards. Then I played mahjong with my grandparents and lost $10+. =(

On Friday I went to the doctor to have my blood taken. I got a haircut and then had dinner at Texas de Brazil- the meat on swords buffet place. Then I watched Shanghai Knights in the theatre. Roughly on par with the first, in my opinion.

On Saturday, it's Osaka and then the drive back to Austin, thus concluding my spring break.

Back in Plano for Spring Break.

I just had the coolest dream. I dreamed that I met this hot girl who completely schooled me in aerospace. I was writing out these equations or something, and then she glances at my paper and is like, "forgot the drag coefficient, silly." And I'm just like =O Man, I think there's just something irresistably sexy about a girl who knows her physics. =P Yea, and then we just hit it off from there. *sigh* Too bad it was only a dream, too bad they gotta break your heart one way or another... Too bad girls in real life don't do engineering more often. =/

I went to the arcades tonight with Kent, Steve, and D. Yeh since I'm done with all "real" work for the week. I hadn't played in like half a year; it was a good way to unwind. Played the new Time Crisis 3; it was pretty good, but I think the first one was still the most groundbreaking though. Afterwards, we went to Bobioca, a new pearl tea place on 24th. I think it's better than CoCo's- more variety; they had mini-pearls, which I'd never had before. Yea, I think a little rivalry will be good for the pearl tea scene here on campus, heheh.

Man, arrrrgggg, shoot! I screwed up sooooo bad on my diff. eq. test today. I've been up late studying for it like the last 3 nights in a row. Then I get in there and completely forget what I'm doing. I only "knew" how to do 2 out of 5 problems; and I'm using "knew" in the loosest of interpretations here. Uuugggghhh... there goes the average. Man, I think diff eq has just singlehandedly claimed the title of hardest class in my schedule. Arrgggg.

Ok, so in addition to studying, I've gone to Metro coffee the last 3 nights also, since it's the only close place that's open 24 hours. Not bad I guess; overpriced, but what coffe place isn't? They play some interesting music there. Interesting scene... it's the kinda place I'd imagine seeing beatniks hanging around or something. Yea, cool vibe. It'd be a great place to chill if not for all the smoke.

Oh yea, Nien's pretty sheisty about me coming in late at night now too. I mean, hell, I'm already not studying in the room, but now he says he'd like it if I didn't shower at night so I wouldn't have to come in & out of the room. Daggone it. It's not like I'm not already trying my darnedest to be as quiet as I can. We've had several talks about the whole sleep situation, and basically, the problem boils down to the fact that we have different philosophies when it comes to sleep. He thinks it's top priority, and that a sleeping person should be shown every "courtesy" imaginable. Whereas, in my opinion, sleep is out of necessity- when your body feels like quitting, you'll know, and when that happens, you oughta be able to sleep regardless of what the hell's going on around you (within reason)- if you can't sleep, it means you're not that tired. Oh yea, and I forgot to mention, but we completely rearranged the room a couple weeks ago so that my desk is farther from his head when he sleeps. I really hate the new arrangement cuz I can't get enough good lighting to read when the main light is turned out, and my comp is too far from my bed so I can't watch/listen to stuff at night with headphones on like I used to. The whole room just feels smaller this way too. I dunno, whatever... I'm sick of whining; whatever. I'll just suck it up and accept the short end of the stick for the rest of the year.

Anyways, yea. So also this week, I found out firsthand that when you're instructed to look "left & right" before crossing a street, the order of the directions in which you're supposed to look are not arbitrarily defined. So I looked right first as I was walking into the street, and I darn near got myself run over by a car coming from the left. So yea, the reason you look left before right is that the one coming from the left is the one that'll kill ya first! Yowsa.

My VCR has screwed up on me twice this week. I hate how dumb these things can be sometimes. Arrrggg.

I was thinking about how sometimes you'd see archers holding their bows sideways and resting the arrow on top of it- like how a crossbow is. Well, I bet that didn't do good things to your aim. And I got to thinking, that must be the equivalent of the modern day gangsta style of holding a pistol sideways- looks cool, but serves absolutely no purpose. Heh, man, the stuff people will do to seem "cool."

I just downed 2 footlongs from Subway. Uuuggghhhh... sooo full right now, hahaha. Yea, I usually get one footlong, and it leaves me a tad bit still hungry. So I went ahead and got two this time. And I really hadn't planned on eating 'em both in one sitting; I was gonna stick the leftovers in the fridge. But I was watching tv while eating, and well, I get carried away and forget what I'm doing, and before you know it, there's no more sandwich left. Yea... it's funny when you can visualize exactly how much you ate, and you think of aaaaall that food in your stomach. Wow. "Regurgitate, regurgitate- look at all the food you ate!" ~Childhood rhyme

*We got our rooming assignments for next year recently. I get to stay in the same room (in Andrews). I'm rooming with Victor from across the hall... let's hope it turns out better than things this year. I mean, me & Nien are still cool and all, but rooming with someone just brings out all your pet peeves and stuff- it's crazy.

**Oh, and I had to take another one of those shampoo showers again last night... dangit... I oughta keep like doubles of everything in my shower basket or something.

Man, let me take the time to reiterate how much I HATE doing laundry... The washing machines don't wash well; the dryer doesn't dry well. And the machines are so freaking small that I hafta do three loads of wash every time. And I had to do three cycles in the dryer to get my clothes dry tonight too! Ugghhh... suckage.

You know, it's funny... I remember when I was buying bath towels/wash cloths I got white ones cuz I figgered it make it easier to tell when they got dirty. But you know, quite honestly, you don't really WANT to know how dirty your stuff is. The machines here at college are incapable of returning laundry to its original state of whiteness. Everything just remains this nasty brownish yellow- ewwwww. So yea... moral of the story? Buy darker colored towels, hahaha.

And also, I realized tonight that I always decide when it's time to do laundry by when I run out of socks or underwear. Socks & undies are the sort of bottleneck in my clothes-wearing/washing efficiency. If I had a couple more pairs of both, I could easily go like a full two weeks without washing. So yea, I'll hafta make a note of that next time I'm buying clothes.

I just watched Jet Li's Hero with Michael and YiLin. It seemed pretty good, but I'm sure it woulda been a ton better if I actually understood what the hell was going on, hahaha! It was in mandarin with simplified (bastardized mainland version) Chinese subtitles. And I mean, my Chinese by true measure, really isn't all that bad I suppose, but they were speaking in like old Chinese. It's like if you're used to Cat in the Hat, and all of a sudden they spring The Canterbury Tales on ya! So yea, half the time, I was like uhhhh... what's going on? Why are they fighting? Why aren't they fighting? Didn't this just happen? So yea, it was a cool movie, but I couldn't give you a plot synopsis if I tried, hahaha. Yea, I'm gonna have to watch this one again with a Fob translating for me or something, hahaha.

*We ended up watching Gen X Cops and Bowling for Columbine also. Gen X Cops was kinda boring since I'd watched it like 3 times, but the corny dialogue is still hilarious. Bowling for Columbine was really good. I thought it'd just be about the school shooting(s), but it was a deeper look at American culture and trying to determine why we're world's most homicidal culture. I think the final conclusion was that we're a country shrouded in fear and paranoia of our neighbors and society in general. We don't think rationally before we act; we "shoot first and ask questions later." And it said that our fear is largely grounded in the media's presentation of the news. I thought about that, and I reflected on how when I went back to Taiwan last summer, my relatives all made such a big deal about the "rampant ecstasy problem" there. I thought it was ridiculous, and I knew it was cuz of what they saw on tv, but I never drew the correlation back to America. The movie made me realize that the same kind of media exaggeration is very likely the root of our fear of minority crime here in the US. Man, that movie was deep. It really made me think... Oh, and the movie also reinforced my personal disagreement with the political right.

I exceeded my weekly bandwidth limit (2.5 gigs) for the first time. I thought it was pretty funny. I was watching Terry Tate: Office Linebacker, and everything suddenly just stopped. I had to reset to get stuff working again. I got downgraded to a second class connection, but it's still pretty darn fast... not a really big deal. And I get my weekly bandwidth reset in like 4 hours anyways.

So today was exploreUT, the university's approximate equivalent of open house. The wushu club held a demo for it, and since I really didn't have a good excuse not to go this time other than the fact that I just didn't want to, I agreed to be in the demo. We were scheduled to peform twice. The first time, literally nobody watched; when we were done, a grand total of 2 people had stopped and stayed. After the first performance, some kids walked by and asked if there was gonna be sword fighting. Not having much to lose, I told them we'd come up with something and for them to come back in an hour. (It's funny how you'll do these kinds of things when your instructors aren't around, and you're with an organization that you're not afraid of shaming.) So me & Michael choreographed our own broadsword vs. broadsword fighting set. I thought it was pretty good actually. It finished with me "impaling" Mike by sticking my sword between his body and arm; and then I turn around and he slashes at my neck, and I pull my shirt up over my head as if I've been decapitated. Hah, I thought it was hilarious, but Mike says it was gay... oh well, I think the crowd loved it, heheh. (We actually had a crowd the second time.) But yea, I got a huuuuuge blister on my hand since I hadn't done sword in so long, and my sword's blade got all banged up by the metal on metal action. =(