Greg Gagnon's Personal Page
This will eventually have all sorts of things, including hobbies and such. Unfortunately, work came first. What a surprise. ;-)
Here are a couple of links just to get
started:
Society for Creative
Anachronism
Books
DVD
Organizations
A medieval
reenactment organization with the first emphasis on the ambience of a
chivalric-based society.
Books
Books are an integral part of my life. I can not conceive of
being without them, nor would I want to do so. Here are some of the things I
am currently reading for pleasure.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Book 7)
(Hardcover)
I confess, I need to know. I need to know if
Dumbledore is really dead. I need to know if Snape is a bad guy, or just hates
Harry because of his father. I need to know if/who important is going to
die. I need to know what happens. I don't need to know badly enough to
have been following the fan sites, but I do need to know badly enough to
pre-order. Although I waited until the third was finished before starting the
series, I made up for it quickly. Since we happened to be in Reading when the
6th came out, we have both an American and a UK edition. I only hope she does
a better job with this epic than was done with Star
Wars.
The Matador Series - Steve
Perry
This series started in 1985, and I started reading them
then, in my first tour in Germany. At the time I was new in the Army, in the
SCA, and generally young. If you are interested in seeing some of what came of
that visit my SCA Persona page at
http://www.macquaid.org/way.
The first book
The Man Who Never Missed was outstanding and includes martial
arts, philosophy, and sex, always a good combination. It describes the
personal journey of someone, Emile Antoon Khadaji, with the vision, the skills, and the
courage to stand up against an oppressive monolith. I was shocked by the
arrival of
Matadora, but devoured it. I wanted to know
more of the story and this tale followed one of his associates as
she searched for meaning following the events of the previous book. I was
very unhappy with the ending of Matadora, not becoause it was irrational, but
because it meant another book was coming that I couldn't yet buy. You are
fortunately spared the anguish of waiting. When
The Macchiavelli
Interface arrived I read it immediately. It was as good as I
expected and I was happy to re-read the others to get the full story
arc.
There are several more books
that followed, filling out the story line of the othe Matador's and
significant characters in the other books.
The 97th Step is
Pen's story. The
Albino Knife tells of Emile's daughter (surprise).
Black Steel is one of Sleel's adventures.
Brother Death
tells the story of Bork.
The Omega Cage is a little of Juete's story.
The Musashi Flex reveals the story of the developer of Sumito. There
is still room for a description of the founding of the Brotherhood of the
Shroud, which I hope will be forthcoming. Unfortunately,
The Musashi
Flex is the only one of these magnificent books still in print.
The
Lens Of The World Series - R.A. MacAvoy
Another favorite
series of mine that I am revisiting is R.A. MacAvoy's Lens of the World
series. It starts with
Lens of the World, our introduction to
Nazhuret. His development and education are the focus of this book. His story
continues with
King of the Dead and conclude, sort of, in
Belly
of the Wolf. His story includes the action I require in an entertainment
read, with philosophy and a medieval fantasy theme in the mix. Unfortunately
this series is also out of print, except for a trade-paperback version of
Lens of the World.
The Kundalini Equation -
Steven Barnes
Sorry, this is not a
series, but it IS out of print. Am I that old? (No comments out there)
This
is a great book about the possibilities of the mind, martial arts, and
meditation.
CommentsIf you have read several of
these books you will find that there are things they have in common. They all
deal with the potential of the trained, determined, human (mue) body, mind,
and spirit. I believe that the human being is capable of so much more than
they usually do. In so many arenas our capabilities are almost unlimited, but
we need to reach out for them.
DVD
I don't get to spend as much time watching movies as I used to, but I do enjoy it when I have time. I don't want too
much real life in my movies, there is plenty of that already. I like action movies, musicals, comedies, or martial
arts.
300What can I say about a comic
book adaptation of the heroic battle that made democracy possible? I find it
interesting that the Spartans, an autocratic, slave-owning, authoritarian
group, are made to sound like the Scots of Braveheart. At any moment they
could have given out that cry "Freedom!", but it would not be too historically
correct. Fortunately, this is a comic book and accuracy is not what I expect
from it. What I did expect was what I got: visually strong, stylized action on
a base of truth. The movement is great, the images are strong, and the story
is believable, if not 100% accurate. I also find it interesting that there are
people who attribute a political message to this. This is thoroughly worth
getting and I am holding out for the 2 disk edition. This is one I will get
again in HD, once the format wars are over, but it is available now in both
Blu-Ray and a combo Standard/HD-DVD. If you want more of the story, there is
the History Channel Special. For the inspiration there is the original
The 300 Spartans. To round out the selection are the wide screaan and full
screen single-disk versions.
The Karate
KidThis is a long time favorite that I can share with my kids.
The stories are good, and the action is decent. I just found out about the 4
volume set after having watched the first again and come to look for the
others.
Organizations
The Patriot Guard
Riders http://www.patriotguard.org/The
Patriot Guard Riders provide motorcycle escorts for military funerals and
bodies returning from overseas. I don't get to ride much, but when I do,
this is where I do it. Any bike welcome (mine is a Honda
ST1100).
Disabled American Veterans http://www.dav.org/
No surprise
what this is. I barely qualify, but want to support their
cause.
Veterans of Foreign Wars http://www.vfw.org/As
above.
The Grand
Lodge of Texas, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons http://www.grandlodgeoftexas.org/
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