- 10:44 Photos culled to inch of life. Relaxing standards so that I have SOMETHING left. Those that survive are at tinyurl.com/5z8fgp #
- 10:46 Also, goddamn hot today! Seriously, summer, what’s your beef!!?? #
- 10:47 Summer answers by upping the temperature a couple of degrees. Summer is a passive-aggressive season. #
- 13:01 Thunderclap rolled right over the house just now. Long, rolling, loud. Its still ringing my ears. #
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Manifesto of the People's Free Republic of Ben 
Gah, your phototaking got me in trouble with the maestro.
Not allowed to do two hander verses sword and buckler, would have been nice if swordsman Barnes had mentioned that.
Hmm, saw the e-mail and put two and two together. I’m hoping it’s not too much trouble as you were following double-time and weren’t employing any techniques outside of your syllabus. Don’t want to get you or Swordsman Barnes into trouble though or antagonize the Maestro.
I think the responsibility there lay with MB, not you. The two times I have played with MB with sword and buckler, I made it very clear to all concerned that during that activity I was not participating in prima spada combat, but conversely was expecting the over-riding safety and courtesy conventions that apply for re-enactors under the QLHF guidelines would hold.
This is certainly the best way to engage in that type of combat, especially at Free-Scholar level. I agree this is MB’s responsibility but I am also concerned the way this has been addressed – by way of a blanket e-mail – could lead to problems.
There wasn’t enough two-handed swords equal to practice, the combat was kept to Scholar level and MB is an experienced Scholar instructor. I think if any of these hadn’t been the case that this type of combat wouldn’t have been considered, let alone practiced.