maybe cause im crazy, i do. i want to build a trebuche or something. maybe no one here even knows what im talking about, but that would be a first.

Of course I know what you're talking about; I'm originally from Delaware.  Every November the state has the annual "Punkin Chunkin" contest where guys make all sorts of catapults and trebuchets designed to try and heave a pumkin as far as possible.  They do allow compressed air powered devices, but theres still a number of trebuchets and catapults of various design.  [url]http://atbeach.com/punkinchunkin/gallery.html[/url]
I also saw a program, probably on the Discover Channel, about them.  Some guy in England made a trebuchet several stories tall and used it to toss a car and a flaming piano across his fields.

A friend out in Goshen, Tx built a trebuche.  Used it to throw VW bugs, junk pianos, couches, cow corpses and all kinds of other junk.  Loved to go out camping and throw burning couches at midnight.

Check out [url]www.trebuchet.com[/url]

yeah i know exactly what your talking about. Ever since i started playing microsofts Age of empires 2 the age of kings, last year ive desperatly wanted to build a trebuchet. a mangonel/onager would be nice too along with just a plain old catapult. I would also like to build a balista/helepolis. you know the thing thats sorta like a HUGE crossbow. ive been reading alot of books and texts about midevial warefare to try to gain perspective. anyone know of any internet sites on the subject?

The first question is what is it you want to beseige?  Also, what sort of access to material to use as a projectile do you have, e.g. large rocks, old pianos, dead cows, etc.?  Again, the target. Is it a classmate that's stealing your lunch money?  A simple slingshot should be a serious enough seige weapon to hold them at distance.  Is it an annoying coworker in a nearby cubicle.  A tabletop trebuchet zeroed at the entrace to your cubicle should keep the invader away.  Or, is it a pesky neighbor?  A mangonel should be enough to flatten their house. If their house is brick or stone, a trebuchet.might be in order.  A deadcow thrown at your house is hard to ignore.  Again, what is your target?  Are you going to beseige (I just like saying that word) a target or defending?z

Yeah, but for a different reason.

Have a long running debate with people from school on wether a onager had a crossbar at the top for the arm to smack into.

Argument got reactivated since Gladiator came out. I insist that the onagers they show in the first battle scene that were throwing pots of greek fire were wrong. They should have had wheels and the arm should of swung through 135deg before hitting the pad, not smacking into that big crossbeam at 90deg like they had it....

urr.. probably more detail than you guys needed[:I]  but things like this are what history major geeks do...

No.
But I am considering buying one from "Catapults R Us."

i first became intrested in this sort of thing when a IPTV (public tv) ran a show about a contest between 2 groups. each used midevil technology to build massive trebuchets. the junkyard wars put fuel on the fire. a teacher i know who is acually perfict at everything he does(its seriously weird, everything from networking to nintendo, but thats another story), made a computer program to build trebs with proper wight/arm/rope/load ratios. its really cool.