Athena
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Posts posted by Athena
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Ehrmehrgerd! Happened to me today and my gun and my mags are only a few months old
P.S. Shout out to Brandon who gave me the link to this thread. AND a video.
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Time for me to butt in again
John TORE both his hamstrings. He went to see a doctor, did MRI, x-ray, laser, vodoo all that the day after I got bodybagged. They told him he would just make it worse if he forced himself to run or walk fast. He is still not 100% healed yet today. He is an awesome guy, great shot and great competitor.
I have to admit, the first time I met Jay and when he opened his mouth, I wanted to push him into oncoming traffic. For reals. But as I got to know him, he's just different. He's actually a nice guy but with a different view of the world. His gun handling skills at that time made me want to weep and duck at the same time but he is the Happy Gilmore of things that go bang. He has terribad form but he can hit. He grows on you...with time
Daryl is a very honorable and exemplary man. Rewind your tivo and watch Ashley's face as they shoot Jay's target.
My heart broke watching last night's episode. Jermaine is such a great guy.
Keep watching and keep the faith, it will only get better. Things happen for a reason
Red Team Nation!!
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Ah yes.....silly men. One of the best "advice" I had was at a local club shoot where there was a stage set up with three ports. So there I was choreographing my dance routine going from one port, crossing one foot over the other to the next and so on when this one slightly overweight man with a ninja tactical vest on who happens to shoot a sport that starts with an "I" and ends with an "A" came up to me and loudly told me that what I was doing was dangerous and that I might trip and fall. Word. I could see the other shooters laughing in the background but I just looked at him, batted my eyelashes and said very politely, "Thanks for the advice, Sir. I shall keep that in mind." Then of course I shot the stage with my obnoxiously loud gun, finished without tripping and when I turned around, he ninja-melted into the background, never to be seen of or heard from ever again.
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Thanks for the video, Ari! Too bad my designated camera man only took 3/4 of my epic plate rack stage =P
BTW, it was awesome shooting with you guys. I had so much fun!
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This December is my 17th year competing actively in this sport. I will be turning 30 as well by December.
The reason why I posted was that I had just come back from Bali after shooting and fighting my butt off for that Ladies Open Title only to see that some people didn't think my performance (not you, Mr. OP, this comes from the other thread) wasn't good enough. Or any of our performances at a Nationals/Area match was good enough. I was tired, I was cranky and I should have just stfu, slept and left this alone.
But I couldn't leave it alone till I got my point across and in doing so, stepped on some toes, and I repeat, I apologize. Being a female shooter is not easy. Not only do you need to have skill to stay on and work twice even three times as hard, but you have to have the guts and the heart and the thick skin to stay on. If I wasn't the determined 13 year old back then, my Dad's fellow gun club members in the Philippines should have made me quit and run off crying a long time ago. But I persevered and plotted my revenge to beat them. And I did, fair and square until they all quit because they got beat by a girl. Repeatedly. There have been many new female shooters who got on but fell off the wagon because of how they were treated at their clubs, not being taken seriously, etc. and that's pretty much how Kay's BWB came into existence, to show women a different side of shooting. Our side and how WE do it.
But as usual, I digress. I would love to see a female GM kicking butt and taking names at big matches someday. My point was that I consider being a GM to be: 1) kick butt at Nationals i.e. place Top 16 or higher, 2) plain Awesome. And like I said, it can be done NOW. On paper. I have shot 100% classifiers before and I quit shooting them at club level because I DON'T want to be GM because I KNOW I don't deserve it. Same thing goes with my M card. I believe I should be A class but I guess winning A class at Area matches enough will make you get kicked out of A class.
But for now, I am proud of what we female shooters (from here and from all over the world) have accomplished.
I hope that clarifies things (and I'm not cranky anymore)....
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As a lady shooter that has been around for a while now, two thoughts came to mind when I read these threads. The First: "This is not worth responding to". The second is:
I agree with Athena (congrats world champ!) and some others that the classification system we have is not a true gauge. It should be based on Nationals/major match scores. And if you look, there are only a handful of guys that consistently shoot in the top 5% year after year. Personally, the classifiers we shoot don't cater to my strengths and I don't think they cater to most women's strengths. I do believe that the greater upper body strength of men is a large factor as to why they are often more successful than women at matches. Classifiers tend to be speed shoots without much or any movement and frankly, I don't think that is a fair test of overall shooting ability. That and I do believe there is a lot of corruption of classifiers being shot over and over at the local level, just to achieve that paper GM status.
My personal desire has nothing to do with my classification - it is to go to matches and shoot to the best of my ability. I'm not sure who honestly thinks that the top lady shooters are not shooting "high enough" percentages or are "mediocre" competitors. I know that I had to work extremely hard to not only beat the other top ladies at the Nationals this year, but also the other 80% of the people I shot against, most of who were men. 2nd and 3rd A class in open was won by ladies. I certainly did not see my performance as sub-par and certainly did not do it for any other reward than shooting to the best of my ability against world class competitors - men and women. And as someone else also pointed out, just the sheer ratio of men to women helps to explain why more women aren't at the top of the page.
I don't know of any sport in the world that does not have separate divisions/competitions for women and men. There is a reason that women golfers aren't competing against Tiger Woods. There is a reason that there is a handicap in bowling. People (men or women) do have different abilities and I believe that's why USPSA has a classification system in the first place...regardless of the flaws I may see in that system. If you take away the plaque for high lady, take it away for all divisions and classes and see what result it will have.
Lastly, I think it's unfortunate that folks are criticizing women for not doing better when we should be encouraging any and all women to get involved and stay involved in the shooting sports. Now more than ever.
Rebecca Jones
AMEN and high five to that
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Thank you.
I know I've stepped on some toes when I posted that and I apologize. I was just getting cranky after my long flight home, seeing how some people think we don't try hard enough, that we're mediocre, blah blah, etc etc, yada yada, yaknowwhatimean? I have seen the classifiers get abused firsthand (i.e. shoot it over and over until you get the ideal time and the ideal hits). I am not saying everyone is doing this but my point is, I have seen it happen and it just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I should have been more specific. I'm M class and I don't even shoot M class scores at Nationals. So there.
My point is, women work doubly hard to get a foothold in this sport. I will have to work out a lot to be able to even get Average Joe's upper body strength. I am not making excuses, I think I'm just pointing out some facts. Take away the award for women and you take away the chance of encouraging more women to get in the sport. I KNOW that there will be a female world champion someday who will do 90% or better. But it takes a helluva lot of work. But it can be done.
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It can be done. On paper. Like many grandbaggers out there who get beat by B class shooters at Nationals....
I, personally, can't live with the idea of being classified GM and NOT making GM scores at Nationals, yaknowhatimean?
Here is my tired, cranky and jet-lagged two cents...And yes, I am the 70% lady from the World Shoot in question who never made grandmaster... I've never believed in shooting classifiers because I think people take advantage of it. For me, I think Nationals is the true gauge on how people should be classified. But then again, that's just my opinion. Now the question is, Mr. OP, how come a lot of GM's can't shoot GM scores at Nationals?
Oh wait, I just realized that the original post was "Did you know there has never been a Lady GM?" ...so, "Yeah, we know..."
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Just got back from it today...two words:
Awesome
Ummm....that's only one word.
Maybe he meant to say, "Freakin Awesome?"
It was very intense and I loved every single minute of it.
Now I'm sad Heath Ledger is dead because I don't think there is anyone who can take over the role as the Joker. That boy had some major talent.
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I went Mac and I shall definitely say, I will never go back. I got the 15" MacBookPro, upgraded it to 4GB RAM...it is smoking faaasssttt and I love it. My main reason for changing was that I didn't want to use Vista because of all the negative things that I heard about it. I definitely did not regret the decision
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Awesome movie! For those who haven't seen it yet, when you do go watch it, stay till the very end...i.e. after the credits for a nice suprise that'll make you go, YES!!!!
Oh and I saw a preview for an upcoming Robert Downey, Jr. movie with Ben Stiller called Tropic Thunder...looks funny -
I opted to run up for several reasons: 1) I can't transition at partial targets from further back as fast as the guys, which translates to slower splits=slower overall time, 2) I can't hit AS accurately if I tried to shoot fast from further back and 3) I just want to run and shoot really fast
I ended up with 14 sec dropping 3 points, I think. This was more of strategy on our (the ladies) part to kinda see how we can turn weaknesses into strengths. And besides, KC and Todd are not human anyways
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Thanks everyone! It was truly a fun match. I can't really say it was super technichal because the qualifier in Michigan took the cake for that. The stages LOOKED deceptively simple and if you took them for granted, they would come back and bite you. It was a mixture of luck, good hair day and just positive attitudes from everyone. I know that there were other ladies that had jams from hell but they bounced back and still finished great.
The ladies squad, as usual, was great. Everyone helped each other out. We really put our brains together for some of the stages and I can say that helped out a lot with improving our percentages because we knew what our strengths and weaknesses were. We even had a system going for the satchel stage where the person in front doing the walkthrough would wait for the next person to finish the walkthrough and put the satchel back into place and so on. I didn't see that in ANY other squads.
And the place was gorgeous. The weather couldn't be any better and there were so many trees and green stuff. I do hope that they have it there again soon.
Congrats to Julie for a solid performance in spite of all the stuff that she had to go through this year. And for Snake-Arm Kay for keeping us all on our toes. YOU are our inspiration. And to Rebecca, Lisa and Megan for still slugging it out despite gun problems. And to Jessie Abbate for a job well done. It's great seeing a lot more talented women shooters coming in this sport. We're definitely going to have a great team for the World Shoot next year.
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I sure had fun shooting with the Dallas peeps. I had been forewarned by Derrick back in Double Tap so it's all good. The stages were fun and the staff deserved a bunch of gold stars for their hard work. It would have been nicer if numbers 2 and 3 in the classes were recognized as well.
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If you....think that...this movie is going to be good....DON'T!! (Loved those previews.)
The movies were supposed to be horrible and they succeeded. Does that mean I'm sick and warped for laughing through the first one in its horrible cheesiness ('I don't miss...') and limbs flying everywhere?
And the second one....the car chase/stunts were good.... -
Welcome Jessie!
I met Jessie for the first time last year at the Steel Challenge shooting her cowboy guns and her open gun and I was very impressed. It's great seeing more talented women shooting and competing actively. Congratulations on your Steel win! Hope to see you soon at a match.
Athena
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Glad to see you're up and typing. Sheryl sends her prayers and well wishes as well.
Edited for a blond moment....
Still praying,
Athena
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BEGIN SPOILERS...
WTF? Monstrous mystics and Persian Immortals?! Giant attack rhino?! Giant elephants?! Giant Persian berserker?! Giant Xerxes?! WTF? I thought I was watching The Two Towers or Return of the King.
SPOILER ......
It was the one-eyed guy/narrator exaggerating to the troops to boost their morale....
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Hop,
It happened in Florida.
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I spoke with Kay last night. She was still in the ICU. I haven't talked to her today but I hear she is conscious and doing better. The snake was a pygmy rattler. It wasn't full grown yet, from what I hear. Kay's strong and tough. I have the utmost faith that she will pull through this. My prayers are with you.
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One for Athena ---> DaybyDay
His abs should have top billing....
As for Sin City, I loved that movie too (and yes, I hit the gym for about two days thinking I wanted to have Jessica Alba's abs. Didn't happen). It was a different genre, I guess. I have not read either graphic novel but the movies were pure entertainment. I'm always eager to see what new stuff they have CGI-wise. Of course there is no substitute for a good story like The Departed and Pan's Labyrinth (which I can't stop raving about and which I can't believe I haven't started a thread on) but hey, we go to movies just to switch the brain off and be entertained, well, at least, that's what I do.
This movie kicked Troy and Alexander's butt. I think it's up there with Gladiator. What do you guys think?
P.S. Watch Pan's Labyrinth. But don't bring the kids!
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I was not disappointed at all. I thought it was a really good movie. Visually, it was great. I still can't get over the fact that the guy who played Leonidas played the phantom in the Phantom of the Opera movie version a few years back and he CAN sing! (no, I am not ashamed to admit that I loved that movie too.) There were so many parts in that movie that made me want to stand up and clap. I would love to enumerate but that would spoil the movie for those who haven't seen it yet...Let's just say that after this movie, I want my own spear.
BTW, I have never seen that (those?) many six packs....oh wait, eight-packs in my life!
And Paul, Athenians sound nice...
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I can't wait as well. I will be in Vegas on Friday working for NASCAR so I will have to wait till early next week.
The training the actors did for the movie was absolutely SICK!!!!
They trained with Mark Twight owner of Gym Jones and his training regimens are unreal.
I'm gonna do the tire training thing....with bicycle tires
You can bet those abs in the big screen won't be CGI -
Have any of you guys seen the preview for '300"? It looks awesome. I've been waiting for this since December when I first saw the preview online. Is it Friday yet???
Oh and I saw a preview for an upcoming Robert Downey, Jr. movie with Ben Stiller called Tropic Thunder...looks funny
I ended up with 14 sec dropping 3 points, I think. This was more of strategy on our (the ladies) part to kinda see how we can turn weaknesses into strengths. 
And the second one....the car chase/stunts were good....
Dear CZ, please make magazines that work...
in CZ
Posted
Factory 19.