-To teach and share as much of the experience I've gathered over the years.

 -To lead by example as much as I can.

 -To continue to learn and grow.

-To be someone that people enjoy fighting against.

-To fight for the sheer joy and love of the game, not because of competition or winning.

I started fighting the Saturday before finals began during spring semester '91 at the University of Illinois. Earlier in the week, I was in the local comic book shop and saw a flier with the tag line "We pad the weapons, not the people." I was living in FAR (Florida Avenue Residence Hall) and the practice site was about a 10-minute walk from my dorm. After that practice, I was hooked but I had to go back to Chicago for the summer.

Once we returned for the fall semester, I started attending practices in earnest. The first weapons I built were a long sword and an axe with a big poofy head. the sword had a base of pipe insulation and used only duct tape to hold everything together. I used a buckler because, according to our rules at the time, bucklers were metal and couldn't be broken by red weapons. I continued to practice and at the event Pelennor Fields, I was given a shorter sword. It completely changed the way I fought and came the realization that I was better suited for faster weapons.

 I then took up the style of two short swords and buckler. It was definitely a change but it worked for me. More to come...

Quarterly, 1st and 4th or, 1st vair gules, 4th gyronny gules, 2nd and 3rd sable, a phoenix or

Not in heraldic terms:

In a quartered field of black and gold, I have a red vair in the 1st quadrant (upper-left), a red gyronny in the fourth (lower-right), and in the 2nd and third black quadrants, I have a gold phoenix.