Mark de Rijk - A Digital Journey

Your typical internet, movie, game, sports and music enthousiast.

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Did you like this years movies? :)

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Daft Punk minion! Original Source (probably) : http://sketchfab.com/millergo/

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Archery review: ETAS Shoot - Gondelsheim 2013

With so many events coming by, ETAS members can’t go to every event (with ‘normal life’ interfering as it does). Some events however are special: events where an ETAS ‘regular’ personally invites you! In this case it was Steve Heckler, who has visited the ETAS Batsford shoot for years. He invited his fellow European archers to the German Black Forest for a challenging 3D shoot and the Dutch ETAS branch answered the call.

On Friday, the six of us arrived in Gondelsheim for the Kraichgauer Blankbogenturnier, an annual event which had its 5th reïncarnation this year. A medieval tent where we could sleep (and drink) was prepared for us by Steve.

This offered a luxurious space to rest and share stories in. Unfortunately a good tent for sitting inside was badly needed -- as it rained from Friday night until Saturday night. This made the first day of shooting a wet and muddy one indeed. Fortunately, at the grill place, the fire was always going so we could warm our feet and hands. After the first day shooting, we were also treated to a few rather nice schnapps by the organisers.

The rain stopped however, and the second day offered a more pleasing temperature. The course itself was beautifully laid out in the edges of the Black Forest. The countless blossoming trees in green meadows, and the blackish beech trees with their brand-new bright green foliage gave the scenery a surreal beauty at times.

The animals, often in pairs, were set up in nice natural scenes (well, besides the odd ‘horse’s arse’ or ‘owl on wood stump’) which made the track all the more pleasurable to shoot. Some longer shots proved quite difficult for the instinctive archer but overall the difficulty was quite feasible, with few branches or shrubbery in the way of targets and medium distances making for a pleasant shoot. On day one, the course was shot as a standard 3-arrow course; on day two however, it was shot as a 'double hunter'. This meant you had to shoot 2 arrows at every target, mostly from two different pegs and sometimes at two different animals. After two days of shooting the ETAS team (well… Linda D.) even managed to take home a prize, consisting of a basket full of pasta. Our team mate Felix (8) also took home a special prize: a hand-made target from '3d-to-do', for being the youngest archer to shoot every target from the official pegs -- which meant that on day 2 he shot the same course as the adults! This concluded the event for the organisation and for our fellow German archers, although the Dutch group stayed for another night in this wonderful spot.

Special notice has to be made of the catering on the shooting grounds. Never have we in The Netherlands had such a feast available (and for such reasonable prices; 50 cent for a coffee and 2-3 euros for meat on bread). With big hot meaty sandwiches, cold cakes, pies and cookies there were too many options to try out, but the quality was enough to make you come back every year. We would like to thank Steve Heckler and his friends Alex and Tanja, for making us feel most welcome and providing us with a lovely breakfast. Of course, we also kindly thank the organisers for setting up such a wonderful event. And maybe, in the future, we can drag some other ETAS members across their borders to join us in Germany. (Used on www.etas-archery.com. Written by Mark de Rijk & L. Doornbos. Pictures by L. Oosterbaan & L. Doornbos).

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A nice little animation about a blind girl and how she views the world.

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Nice art style. (couldn't find the source, sorry)

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Beautifully & simply done art. Check out her website.

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Archery Review: ETAS Shoot - Batsford 2012

Where was it? Although it’s still called ‘The Batsford Shoot’ it actually took place near Swindon, England How was it? The Batsford Shoot is, for the time being, the only official ETAS (European traditional archery society) shoot. And people that have been to  ETAS-related shoots know that you are going to have a good time. With some of the best (warbow and longbow)archers in the field but also aspiring newcomers there is fun to be had at any level. Furthermore it brings together archers from all over Europe. This year was more versatile then ever with the Dutch, Swedes, Germans, Icelandic and of course the Brits (English, Scottish and Welsh).

Batsford is an all-round shoot with a rove, a clout, a 3D Round and, very important to most representatives of the EWBS (English Warbow Society), a flight. In England the weather always comes into play so the schedule was somewhat juggled around which meant that everything but the 3D was shot on Saturday, making it quite a busy day!

Divided in two groups we commenced with either the clout or the rove and switched after a short break between shoots. People that were at the event last year might recognize some of the rove shots but this didn’t mean it was any easier (trust me, I know). The flight is always a very prestigious part of the day with many archers displaying a master class in handling the English warbow. Although a hefty wind didn’t produce the best conditions, some records were broken at both the men’s and women’s distances.

Saturday ended with a barbecue that didn’t really live up to previous years (last year anyway) with blackened hamburgers and sausages. The food even ran out at some point when there were people that only had one serving (while others had several), or even none. Let’s call it a small blemish on an otherwise perfect day. Quickly forgotten by the next trademark of this ETAS shoot, the theme party!

With several entertaining performances and an actual beer tent there were many jolly times to be had. The theme this year was Steampunk and because it was the 10th anniversary of ETAS many people actually dressed up in some way or the other. All of this resulted in some ‘interesting’ creations (dare I mention a man-kini? *shivers*).

On Sunday we commenced with the 3D round and it was quickly apparent that some of the party-goers woke up with a ‘little’ hangover (thus not being man enough to even start a 3D round!). Who could have known they might have been better off when it started pouring. Being in a small overgrown area did not help much, resulting in some very soaked archers. The day ended with the annual raffle and the award ceremony (special prizes this year and very much worth your efforts).

Conclusion? One weekend with all the shooting disciplines, great company, a smashing party and some nifty prizes; what else could you want. Ok, the barbecue didn’t work out so well this year and one can never predict the weather but these are small issues, easily forgotten. One can only hope someday there will be more official ETAS shoots!

Score 4.5/5

(Photos by: Yorick Zelessen and Graham Anderson).

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This sums up that mindf*ck feeling you get from some sci-fi's pretty well. (http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?id=2633#comic)

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One to Watch?

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This is clearly how volcano's work. Note the 'ice' cap :D (unknown source)

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A nice little clip a friend of mine pointed out.

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Archery Review: Shoot at the Marks

Where was it? This special event took place at castle Doornenburg in Doornenburg. How was it? Roving Marks like his are commonplace in England but in the Netherlands we somehow don’t have the space for it (something about landownership and the right to tread on it). Thus this type of competition only happens once per year (for us dutchies) making it extra special. Although this event is so rare, there weren’t a whole lot of archers present this time filling only 23 of the 50 available spots. A real shame because the surroundings and the weather were superb for open field shooting!

The castle at Doornenburg is a small but charming castle with open fields and a canal on one side and the city itself on the other. At the first day of shooting the castle wasn’t officially open so we had the place pretty much to ourselves (except for a few stray tourists). The catering of the castle had agreed to see after the archers which was much appreciated (although somewhat expensive). The second day there was a small group of re-enactors present that performed archery and swordplay (both on a dangerously amateur level according to my fellow archers).

Over the two days we shot four rounds in the fields (one in the morning and one in the afternoon each day). The second round of the second day incorporated a special ‘speed mark’ where you had thirty seconds to shoot as many arrows as possible (a lot of points to be had here!). This day also finished with a flight shoot where we had three chances to shoot as far as possible.

It wasn’t all sunshine and good times though. The fields we were shooting hadn’t been mowed down yet for the coming summer leaving us with grass and weeds that grew to our knees. Needless to say that finding your arrows became troublesome if shot from a lower angle (something many people did). This and the little clearance you sometimes had before sinking your arrow in the moat, waist high in nettles or someone’s garden (yeah really) made it so a lot of archers lost one or two arrows (or 5-6 in some cases).

Conclusion? Being an unique event in the Netherlands makes you want to come back over and over simple because it’s a fun thing, but you only know this once you’ve been there. The organization could do well promoting it a bit more and maybe arranging their own catering. Some extra thought put into some of the shots wouldn’t hurt considering there is a wide range of skill level involved (an arrow in someone’s backyard is mainly the archers fault but still). The addition of a speed shoot and a flight shoot were both most welcome and emphasize the uniqueness of this event only further. Score: 3.5/5

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Disney & Tarantino. I would watch it.

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So simple, so sad, so funny :)

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Picked up from TPB.

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I'm watching Frozen Planet at the moment so this seems appropriate.

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Archery Review: 3D Texel

Where was it? Our last animal 3D took place on the Netherlands’ biggest island Texel. How was it? Although winter has been declining here for the last two weeks it was still chilly. So we suited up in many layers of thermal gear and braved the predicted winter gales. The Texel 3D was a two day shoot with different/re-arranged animals between both days.  The 3D Route was divided in three loops: one trough the woods, one partly in the woods and partly in the lower dunes and one loop trough the upper dunes. As you can expect the dune parts, where the winds were blowing awfully hard with little shelter around, one had some trouble keeping his arrows straight. Nonetheless, if the sun broke trough you had a lovely view of the beach area.

Most animals had a clear view to the target but the distance to size ratio was, especially the first day, a little bit lost. A ten centimeter high owl or rat on about 25 to 30 meters required you to be quite the dead eye (together with the wind this ended up being more luck then skill). The dunes did allow some long distance shots on bigger targets though which were nice. Catering had the standard selection but the meatball sandwiches were sadly on the small side (this is how we usually measure the quality of the food). Luckily there are plenty of restaurants in the area to choose from for after the shoot. Another minus point was the award ceremony that seemed to take forever. The score registering was very slow and by the time the medals were ready to be given out it was raining (while we had a dry day up until then).

Conclusion? In the Netherlands we never get to shoot up and down much (our country is terribly flat in case you didn’t know) so having a shoot where a large part consists of shooting up and down is very much appreciated (if you are a rat-size type of hunter). We can’t blame a shoot for the weather but trim down the ceremonial part down next year please? Score: 3.5/5