St. Pats Day Mayhem Pics

Not a whole lot of words to put with these pics. If you need more commentary, feel free to ask =D


My landlord, believe it or not...

The crowd... can you find the butt paste?



More beer (bars) in more places...
The evil leprechaun strikes...

Crown Weekend

We went to the West Kingdom Crown Tournament this past weekend. It was to be a pivotal and decisive weekend for us, as it was our first camping event with the kid. The outcome of this event was to lay the groundwork for our entire event season this year, because if we can't handle the kid at a camping event, we wouldn't be going to many. Also, while I wasn't going to be fighting in the Crown Tournament, I did want to fight in the Tournament of Roses, more on that in a bit.

So, a weekend with the three of us, really just saturday morning to sunday morning. Really, it wasn't as bad as it could have been, but it was still not as relaxing and fun as events used to be. One of us has to chase the kid around all day, and try to fight him to keep a hat on his head when he is in the sun. Not a big deal really, just a lot of work, as kids tend to be. Really, the part that I didn't like was that there weren't many opportunities for us to enjoy the event as a family. I believe that will come in time, as he gets older.

Watching the fighting was cool, there were a lot of really good fights. I am also a big fan of watching court too, the formalities of our game make it that much more fun imho. Next season I am going to fight in about everything that I can, even the crown tournaments that I know I can't win (nor are we ready for me to).

The Tournament of Roses. This is an informal combat, where you can just walk up and challenge anyone who wants to fight, and you fight the best of 3. The winner then would select someone for his opponent to deliver a rose to. Not a huge deal, but it is kind of fun to do. I really wanted to win my wife a rose, but seeing as how I am still new, the chances were slim. My first fight I lost to a knight, but I didn't know he was a knight because his belt wasn't very visible. It was fun though, I learned a little, and was complimented on my skill level compared to my newbishness (my new word for the day). Then comes the rose, he asked me to deliver one to the Princess of the Mists. Cool, not only was I nervous about fighting in the first place, now I have to go hunt down royalty. As I took off my helm, and prepared to start the delivery process I looked around to see where I get the rose from. To my surprise, I realised that I have to request a rose from the Queen to make the delivery... oi, really? Can we make this any more nerve racking for the newbie that doesn't want to make a fool of himself?

So, I find myself standing in front of the royal pavilion, in a short line of fighters waiting for their turn to request a rose from the Queen. Standing just at the edge of the large tent, in front of a series of finely carved wooden thrones, I come to a realization. I have read about this, in The Once and Future King. Knights would travel to many places, besting opponents, and sending them back to the Queen to tell her who had bested them and how. I find myself surrounded by fighters, and royals, in the middle of an Arthurian legend, about to tell the tale of my first battle for a rose to the Queen herself. For some reason that was my swift spiritual kick to the head, my shakabuku, if you will (props to the one who names that movie reference).

My nerves were now still, my spirit calm and unwavering. When it is my turn to approach, I do so with the standard formal politeness that is required of the situation. I kneel before a handful of royal women, the most prominent of which is the Queen, but also I now notice that the Princess of the Mists is there as well, seated in her own throne a few feet away (at least I don't have to walk too far). Then, without even noticing, my first words create a slight faux pas as I address the Queen as "Your Highness" instead of "Your Majesty" a small detail, but one that she noticed and corrected me on. It was a short meeting, but one that I had fun with. Queen Mari was very nice, and apparently impressed enough with our conversation that she handed me two roses and told me to bring one to my lady as well. I wanted to hug the woman. I thanked her and stepped away, took a side step then delivered a rose to her highness *cough* with utmost humility.

Then came the highlight of the weekend. I got to deliver a rose to my wife. The icing on the cake to an already shining moment in a newbie SCA day. I only wish I had someone to take a picture of that moment. At least we have a rose, I should take a picture of that. That afternoon was covered in awesomesauce.

I think I am going to take a moment to touch on one of my social insecurities in regards to the SCA. Its a club, a clique if you will. In some ways it reminds me of high school, and brings me back to the mode of not talking, and not being social. And that really gets me in to trouble, because it makes people think that I don't like them. Which isn't the case at all. A lot of the time I look up to the people I meet in the SCA, cause they are where I want to be. They have a certain amount vested in the society, and have made it a part of their life. Something I want to do. Slowly I am trying to break that shell, the Tournament of Roses was a big step for me. I missed opportunities to say hi to people I had met briefly before, just because I figure they wouldn't remember me. I need to stop doing that shit. I mean, I'm almost 30 and I'm acting like I'm 15 again, what the crap is that?

Enough rambling for me. Though, I do need to blog more...

Erin Go Bragh!

Happy St. Pats day! I would have posted earlier, but I have been doing a ton of stuff around here to get ready (along with handling a monster child). I was slacking this year, my first beer of the day didn't happen till 11:30am. Got more stuff to get done, have fun everyone.



May you reach heaven's gates a half hour
before the devil knows your dead.

Cheers!

A Taste Of Things To Come

I like St. Patrick's day. It is one of those days that my wife and I really like to celebrate. To the point where we have at least one legendary story resulting from an evening's celebration a few years ago. We like the day even though we are not religious, and only slightly Irish, my wife being slightly Scottish, and not Irish at all. So, I guess I should say that it is the one commercialized, consumerized, Americanized holiday that we buy in to. We like to drink, so we buy in to it a lot. This year will be no exception.

Why, you ask, am I making it a point to share the simple fact that we are going to be eating corned beef, and drinking Guiness on monday? Simply for the fact that it falls on a monday. Fighter practice is usually on mondays. Two to three of the participants of the evenings traditional festivities are going to be people who I would usually see at fighter practice. Are we putting two and two together yet? Yes, that's right. Not only will monday night be a night for erin go bragh, but we will start off the evening with a round of battle.

This should be a particularly fun evening, considering that my landlords and my parents should be there for the opening events. Also, I think my sister and a friend of hers may be there, faire geeks making fun of SCA geeks, should be fun. I'm hoping that someone brings a camera. But I'm also kinda hoping that someone doesn't bring a camera lol.

Anyway, I'm excited. Just thought I'd share.

What are you doing for St. Pat's day? Don't make me tag my two readers! Oh wait! Don't I owe Mie a topic of my choice?

Mondayness

I'm not sure if Mondayness is a word, Firefox says no, but I'm going to use it anyway. If "everydayness" is listed as an alternative spelling for Mondayness, then Mondayness should be a word.

I haven't fought in two weeks, well, I missed two weeks, so I guess that means that I haven't fought in three weeks. Between the move, and well... the move, I just didn't have the time. Priorities, ya know? Not fighting for that long, there should be some impact on my progression of skill, or so I hear. I wasn't concerned about my skill level tonight though, and I think that made all the difference. I feel like I did well. I am noticing timing openings that I wasn't seeing so much before. Maybe since its been three weeks, I don't remember seeing the openings before. Regardless, it is progress from the beginning of the year that I notice.

We had four fighters on the field tonight, and a new fighter from out of the area that stopped by to check things out. Nice guy, hope he gets his armor from wherever it is stored right now and comes out to play. I tried to focus on my stance more than anything, after the Sac practice a few weeks ago when I worked with Ragnar a little bit. It really seems to make a difference, it's a no brainer that it makes me more mobile, but it makes me think more offensively too (which is something I need more of).

Two of the fighters left a little early, and I spent about an hour just fighting with my Samurai friend (I don't feel like calling him a newb anymore). We had a blast, just messin around fighting, doing stupid shit that we wouldn't normally do. Just really good old school fun. Sucks that he has to be at work at 4am. Bleh.

I was in such a good mood on the way home, that I had to stop and pick up a rose for my darling wife. I wanted to make sure that she was in a good mood too when I got home. Spread the love ya know?

Time for a shower, and bed.

------'--{@

I'm Back

i can haz internetz again...