Hi all. I stumbled onto the forum here today while looking for more info on synthetic emeralds and I was pretty thoroughly impressed with what I saw. Most people here seem to be genuinely passionate about the subject matter and that is a sure way to make me stop and see what it's all about.
A bit about me; I'm a gemologist with a couple years in the field and have recently received my Registered Gemologist Appraiser credentials having been a gemologist for some time prior. I have a business here locally providing gemological services from gem ID, to consultation and appraisal. I love the work and the opportunity to talk with others in this fascinating field of study.
I am super passionate about things I am drawn to and gemology is no exception. I am one of the worlds leading researchers and practitioners in the field of RMA and present at major martial arts seminars all across the country. I am an avid traveler and make it a point to learn foreign languages for fun...Actually, I learn those foreign languages because the source texts I'm working from are often in old German or Italian. I'm also an Asian Martial Arts Instructor and I still get out to see a tournament or two once in a while but my gemology obsession now takes up much of my time. I also love chess and a good debate(How lame is that!!??
Oh well. That's my story. It's great to be here. I look forward to learning and sharing what I have learned here on the forum.
_________________ ISG~ RGA
Last edited by C S Smith on Sat Nov 10, 2007 9:17 pm, edited 1 time in total.
As I said in another thread; Welcome and enjoy your stay, I certainly do!
Excuse me for being ignorant, but what is RMA?
Neither chess nor a good debate are lame, they are different kinds of war really, aren't they? I'm up for discussing philosophy or playing a game of Go anytime! (Go is another strategic board game with the same goals as chess)
_________________ If it sounds good, then say it again!
The RMA are the historically-accurate martial arts of Western Europe from about the tenth century to the 17th. It's really quite a fascinating field of research with alot of new developments and discoveries being made every year. There is a group in Sweden affiliated with ARMA. Look around this page to see where; www.thearma.org/Practice/partners.htm
Aha, that's interesting! I did some drilling in medieval martial arts with my roleplaying group some years ago, when I still was into live roleplaying games, but more or less lost the taste for it after a woman was knocked senseless by a stupid kendo kid in a staged duel. What is your area of expertise?
_________________ If it sounds good, then say it again!
Unarmoured and armoured longsword. I hold the title Senior Free Scholar...one of ten in the world to earn the title. It's really been a very satisfying pursuit for me. It combines the commitment to good scholarship with the capability to perform in earnest on demand in freeplay/fencing.
We don't do any role-playing of any kind. We are purely a martial arts organization that works directly from the original source materials-most of which are centuries-old German and Italian fencing and grappling manuscripts.
That is a nice achievement! Personally I'm not much into fighting at all, only reason I did it was because we were going to play a traveling band of merchenaries for a while, but the research part was always interesting and when I'm thinking back, I think that we used some of the publications from ARMA back then when we were learning the basic moves. Later on we geared toward the old norse fighting styles.
Well well, maybe it isn't a proper topic for this forum, anways, nice to have you here; Rock the boat a little and you will make a big splash!
_________________ If it sounds good, then say it again!
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