2004-04-15 - 1:07 p.m.

Yikes...15 days...I'm starting to slip into the "Ehh, he never updates, why bother?" category I hate seeing my friends in so much...

So...what's going on in my little neck of reality?

Not much...and too much all in one.

For starters, no event for us this weekend, which blows chunks, since I really love Lochmere's annual Rapier event, especially the way it was done the last couple of years. However, I have to be available in town all day Sunday (and technically starting at about 6 PM Saturday night) to cover reporting issues for a major ticket handling system upgrade happening this weekend.

To top it all off, I have to be in at 7 PM on Sunday, and be prepared to stay until Midnight, then be back at 7 AM Monday for a full day...but hey, it's additional straight time hours, so it doesn't suck but so much.

On the plus side, the tradeoff is that Rhiannon and I will be able to attend Crown. No, I'm not fighting...although the thought had briefly passed through my mind, it was quickly drowned out by the facts that 1) I'm not in any sort of condition to fight Crown, 2) Rhiannon would kill me for even suggesting it, and 3) The deadline for letters of intent is past anyhow. I am, however, Heralding for a friend who is fighting, and that'll be cool.

Six hours of driving each way, though, will suck rocks. Could be worse, I imagine, I could live in Maryland, which would make it 9 hours each way. But, I get to get off work a couple of hours early that day, as does Rhi, so we'll make it.

After that, the next event will be Hero's Portion...although I do hope to at least make an appearance at Spring Revel, that will be a function of how life goes leading up to that.

For some reason, it's really, really hard to get into the swing of this year. Maybe it's just me, but it feels like the SCA, or at least the parts of it I am aware of, is changing subtly, and not in ways I'm all that sanguine about.

For the entire length of time we've been active, the SCA has been a tool for exploring those aspects of medieval culture which interest you, and providing a forum to socialize with like-minded folks, show off your cool stuff, and dabble your fingers into other things, if you wanted.

So, I have been able to explore metalcasting, calligraphy, block-printing, papermaking, armored tourney combat, armored War combat, rapier tourney combat, rapier war combat, archery, heraldry, and a few other things that don't immediately leap to mind.

I've never acheived what I would consider "Excellence" at any of them. I've acheived adequacy in several, and perhaps even decency at a few, but I've never been in a position where I've felt like I could say "Why yes, I know *this* is how it was done, and I am the undisputed Master of that".

And that's cool. I *have* my field of undisputed Mastery...I get paid quite well (well...okay...not well enough, but has anyone ever turned down more money?) to display that Mastery from 8 AM to 5 PM Monday through Friday.

I enjoy flittering and experimenting and seeing how things go and where they stick and etc. For 6 (almost 7) years now, that's been a fine and wonderful thing.

But now I discover that that's not the way the game is being played anymore. The bar is being raised. That's not inherently a bad thing.

What is, however, is that the decision of which bars are being raised, and how high they are being raised, isn't in the hands of the people, it's in the hands of the "Powers that Be".

It started with the "Cover Your armor" thing. I still think that rule is not the best way to accomplish the desired goal, however my opinion matters not on that, the battle is over, my side lost...fine.

Actually, I take that back, it started with the upswing of "Your pavillion needs to be period if you want to set it up anywhere near the main area of the event". We just didn't feel that one, because we had chosen, of our own free will, 5 years ago, that we wanted a Period Pavillion (at least, a conjecturally period one, by the article of the same name :) ).

Now it's a "We want you to concentrate on fighting Schlager rather than Epee" and "If your chairs aren't period, cover them for they offend our eyes".

That's great, for those folks who are interested in studying Period seating technology.

I'm not.

To me, a chair is a way to keep my ass from hitting the ground when I feel the need to get my weight off my feet. It's a tool to *allow* me to participate in medieval recreation (as opposed to re-creation or reinactment, I mean recreation in the "entertainment" sense).

Someday, might I choose to ply my woodworking skills in that area? Actually...probably not, because we've tried it twice, and both projects were failures. The first failure damned near broke Rhiannon's back when it suddenly fell to pieces at Stephan and Niobe's Coronation, causing her to fall to the ground and a bolt to jam itself into her back. The second wasn't anywhere near as dramatic, but it was still unsatisfying, incomplete, and expensive.

Likewise, to me, my suit of armored combat protective gear is a tool to allow me to study the tactics, actions, and strategies of Medieval Warfare from inside the battle. To me, that's interesting. I majored in it in College, for crying out loud (split European History/Political Science major, and the History department's primary professor was *big* on War).

Could I make a helm? Probably, armed with enough time and materials. Heck, it might even pass inspection. Do I want to? No. I know what I feel the need to know about helms and armor right now. They existed to attempt to protect their wearer from injury incurred in War, and did so to varying degrees of success. Many (possibly most) of the folks *in* the battles didn't have much.

Might that change in the future? Maybe. My interests ebb and flow.

My point is that where things used to *feel* like "See what you want to try, and try it...if your effort isn't all that excellent, well, that's okay, you'll at least learn if you want to try harder"...now it *feels* like "If you haven't acheived at least this level of expertise, don't even bother trying"

Part of it is probably that the majority of our "Peer Group" (the folks who were around when we started) are, literally, Peers now. There is a degree of excellence that is expected from those folks, and I don't begrudge them that at all.

It's also that a lot of that same group are now folks who are married, many with child (or children). They say that tastes and interests mature as you get older. It's not surprising that some folks interests go more towards the "More authentic" as they mature.

Well...I'm not there yet...at least not in the areas that people are focusing on right now.

Oddly enough, I *have* the project that I want to do *perfectly* period (or at least as perfectly as possible, given the realities of 21st Century living), but I don't really expect a great deal of success, if only because of the distinct lack of rushing streams to power the waterwheel to turn the stamping mill to make the pulp for the paper.

(shrug) it's a dream...but it feels sometimes like folks are waking up from it...me, I wanna hit snooze for another little bit and see if the next 8 minutes are any different.

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