We Did It!

I refereed my VERY FIRST EVER RUGBY MATCH yesterday.

I am very pleased. I was unsure of how I would do. I'd been having trouble with the test and any practice quiz I could find on the web and I couldn't understand why I couldn't put it all together.

My biggest fear was that I would be so confused and present such a useless pressence that the players would take the matter into their own hands and start retaliating for things I didn't call or didn't call correctly.

Well, that didn't happen and it went rather well. I was asked to come back which is always a good sign.

I say that "we" did it becuase I was impressed with the way the young men and coaches of both teams, Lake Forest and UIC knew the game and conducted themselves. They made my first game much easier than I had expected. A big thanks goes out to them.

The result? Well Lake Forest (home) won 48-0.

I was questioned once on a call, at half time and the player turned out to be right (I checked my lawbook which was close at hand). I told both teams what the law really was and that we would play it that way after that. I was also asked by one of the coaches to watch the lineouts for not throwing straight. I think I cleaned that up pretty well after that.

So everyone had an enjoyable game of rugby and no body got hurt through mallace. I think there were a couple of concussions, but that's nothing really. This is Rugby.

One man did have a broken jaw and I hope he gets well soon.

Still Editing

I learned that Editing is not the same as Proofreading and that Proofreading should happen only after Editing.

Editing is moving stuff around and adding stuff to make the story stronger and increased emphasis where you want it. That takes me sitting down for longish periods of time to get into the story.

Proofreading is just checking spelling, grammar, word usage and continuity. That's easy and can be done in as little as 30 second chunks.

This makes things a whole lot harder. I'm having trouble getting enough time together unfettered so that I can get into the story and be productive. Please wish me luck.

I FAILED!

I failed the Rugby Ref exam.

I don't understand how I am not capable of understanding this stuff. I got an 81% and you need a 95%. I would have sworn I had gotten a 100% as I put the page and law reference by each question in my book.

I get two more chances, but if those references aren't right I don't know what could be the right answers!

On top of that, how am I supposed to be able to make instant decisions on the field if I can't figure out the laws in an open book test?!

I know I'm not stupid. Is there some sort of trick to this?

It Has Started

Well, I started NaNoEdMo. I'm going to try to do 50 hours of editing this month before it's through.

This means that there will be even less blogging around here. You can help me though. Please comment on the chapters that appear here of Guya Principal. That's the book I'm working on right now (see the post immediately preceding this one for links).

I got some good comments earlier from an anonymous poster that I am already using in my editing. You could be a part of it too.

Thanks.