What A Weekend!
University has long been one of my favorite events. The mere fact that so many people are gathered together sharing what they know with other people is terrific. Sure, most of the SCA is about the tourneys and the pagentry, but there's a lot of knowledge, history, and skill that goes into putting on those things. University is a convenient place to get a cross-section of that information as well as get ideas for how to do things better. Sure, most of us could go to Wikipedia or the library and read about our favorite subject area, but there are also a lot of us that don't absorb information that way (either we inherently don't, or we have long fallen out of "student" habits) Being able to interact with someone knowledgable often spurs us to think about things a different way or be inspired by their enthusiasm for the subject.
For my own part, I find that when I prepare for teaching a class, I learn my subject a little better *and* I usually have at least one student that gets inspired enough to go out and exceed whatever I've done or go into it much further in depth than I originally was interested in doing. I *love* that--it makes me understand why some teachers love their profession in spite of the hassle and bureaucracy. If there is even one person who "gets it" and then goes off to excel, makes it worthwhile. Luckily, at University of Atlantia, most people attending a class are there because they already are interested and (forgive my presumption) are looking for further inspiration.
So, Friday, I took a vacation day. The site is 6 hours from my house and one of the classes I was going to teach was scheduled at 10am. Poor ealdthryth had been feeling a little under the weather mid-week and began making noises indicating that she was planning to stay home. She recovered and the fact it was an opportunity to travel with Bran, she decided to come along. It was quite entertaining, because we had plenty to talk about. The miles flew by without us really noticing. Most of our trips with just the two of us involve ealdthryth and I rehashing stuff that has been hashed many times before--I guess we don't get out much. Bran claims to be a "bad passenger", preferring to do the driving himself, but we had him either so intent or laughing so much that he completely did not notice that he was a passenger.
It has been a while since the last time I taught or gave a presentation outside of the office, so my lecture skills are a little rusty. The rose window class seemed to go well, and I had a good turnout for a class scheduled first thing in the morning. No one snored, so I guess I did OK....8^)
stitchwitch was teaching a card game to fill in for a class that had gotten cancelled, so I checked it out--just so I could have additional games for people to try at 12th Night. Bran had been scheduled for two classes, so I attended the one on "what to do with your heraldry". Now, in fairness, I know a fair bit about heraldry, so I shouldn't be too surprised that most people only think about heraldry being for shields and banners. Even when you aren't teaching, it is great to watch the proverbial light bulb go on over people's heads when they are introduced to a new idea that they can apply.
Alas, by waiting until the last moment to offer class proposals, I ended up bookending the day. I got to teach the first hour and the last hour. That isn't so bad in and of itself, but it just made for a long day. The second class I taught was on cordials. Yes, I wrote about both of the classes in an earlier posting. I wasn't as comfortable with the brewing topic since I don't really brew very frequently. I'm afraid that I was a little more rambling in my approach (and I apologize to my students). However, they walked away with recipes, good advice, and a load of encouragement to experiment. I saw a couple of people perk up at things I mentioned, so I did what I set out to do.
ealdthryth and pinkleader contrived to keep me on-site at lunch time to ensure that I would attend Convocation. How difficult was that? Honestly, not very. Convocation is similar to Court, and I, as a long-time Court Herald, am a Court Junkie™. It was deemed necessary because pinkleader bestowed an honorary Doctorate upon me. wyvern-or made a gorgeous certificate for the occasion, and I have to find a good spot for it. Since most of our wallspace is hidden by bookshelves, actual pictures and the like hanging from the wall are rather rare. Last night, I think I may have found a good place for it. You like me, you really like me!
As usual, though, we ended up staying on-site until nearly every one else was gone. Bran had a lot of catching up with people to do. It didn't really make us terribly late getting back to Charlotte, though. The trip back was, in some ways, even more entertaining than the trip to University. Of course, that could have been dangerous. At one point, we were all laughing so hard I nearly ran off the road. EEEK!
Choo Choo, Woo Hoo!
Many years ago, I knew a fellow model railroader who travelled a great deal because of his job as a carillon installer. Often, his job took him to the east coast of North Carolina, and he would make a minor detour to a hobby shop he knew about. At that time, I didn't have much cause to travel other than SCA events, so his reminicences about this wonderful hobby shop pretty much amounted to taunting. Oh it has this, and it has that, and it has the other, too! Boy, are YOU missing out.
Well, to be honest, whenever we go a on a long trip to an event, I wistfully check the hobby shop advertisements in the back of my model magazine. There might be the slightest chance we pass by one of them on a trip, and, like the intensity of light, the chance that it will be open when we do decreases as a function of the square of the distance we travel. Forget Sundays, none of them ever seem to be open then, so the only chance I have is on the Friday segment of the trip. This time, it turned out we were going to drive right past this legendary shop on our way to and from University.
I gave ealdthryth the address so she could check GPS via her Crackberry and see where we should turn to stop by the store. I knew which town it was in, and I knew that we would pass by it during operating hours--as I had blatantly planned our morning departure accordingly. To my dismay, Google maps indicated that we had passed by the turn 20 or 30 minutes back. ACK! I was extremely disappointed, and resigned myself to missing out on the side trip. And then we passed a sign post indicating the town was still 15 or 20 minutes ahead. I insisted that ealdthryth double-check. After all, looking at the physical map versus what Google claimed didn't make any sense. Why would the place have a street address in one town, but GPS show it in a completely different municipality that wasn't even nearby?!? After a little more online research, and ignoring Google maps, we determined that we were two exits away, and I got to shop.
Well, the slight detour to the legendary shop was indeed worth it. The only place that I have been to that was as large or as well-stocked was the shop next to the North Carolina Transportation Museum. They had just about anything you could order from the hobby manufacturers. I am so glad I don't drool.... Now, there are larger shops, but they are in major metro areas like New York City and Los Angeles, and they cater to the people who like railroads in those areas or (if the ratio of layouts displayed in the magazines are an accurate cross-section) the narrow gauge railroads of the Rockies.
I mentioned to the cashier that GPS had placed them in a different town. He nodded sagely and said that his own Garmin unit placed their shop in the middle of the lake down the road. It turns out that the municipalities are responsible for providing the dimensions of the addresses/plats to the map makers. The local town planners, apparently were lazy, so Google and the other mapping organizations simply plugged in a default number, so when locating an actual street address, you *might* get something in the vicinity.
In the end, I indulged in purchasing a couple of kits that I would have otherwise had to order without being able to inspect. One of my pet peeves about purchasing things other than books and certain commodities online is that I cannot inspect them and get a sense beyond a little 100x100 pixel image of the item of what it is that I am purchasing. I realize that it is completely impractical for every local shop to have a full complement of these things, so I appreciate finding a shop that does. We continued our journey with me in a much more cheerful mood. I was happy already, but the stop by itself would have made my weekend regardless of whatever else might have happened.
You Smell Like Dog Fu
Yeah, that just sounds wrong.... However, we visited the parental units on our way back from University, and they have two rather amusing and sweet dogs. People! Our FAVORITE! One of them loves to lay down next to wherever the paternal unit is. The other just likes to be near anyone and everyone. She decided to take a swim, and dampness simply creates eau de dog. The cats were very curious about this eau de dog that we had acquired during our absence from home. Ignatius and Josie in particular were concerned that ealdthryth's elbow smelled like dog breath where my folks' dogs had licked her....
The cats didn't seem to be put out by our absence otherwise, but I noted with great amusement that the robe had migrated back down to the bottom of the staircase....
For my own part, I find that when I prepare for teaching a class, I learn my subject a little better *and* I usually have at least one student that gets inspired enough to go out and exceed whatever I've done or go into it much further in depth than I originally was interested in doing. I *love* that--it makes me understand why some teachers love their profession in spite of the hassle and bureaucracy. If there is even one person who "gets it" and then goes off to excel, makes it worthwhile. Luckily, at University of Atlantia, most people attending a class are there because they already are interested and (forgive my presumption) are looking for further inspiration.
So, Friday, I took a vacation day. The site is 6 hours from my house and one of the classes I was going to teach was scheduled at 10am. Poor ealdthryth had been feeling a little under the weather mid-week and began making noises indicating that she was planning to stay home. She recovered and the fact it was an opportunity to travel with Bran, she decided to come along. It was quite entertaining, because we had plenty to talk about. The miles flew by without us really noticing. Most of our trips with just the two of us involve ealdthryth and I rehashing stuff that has been hashed many times before--I guess we don't get out much. Bran claims to be a "bad passenger", preferring to do the driving himself, but we had him either so intent or laughing so much that he completely did not notice that he was a passenger.
It has been a while since the last time I taught or gave a presentation outside of the office, so my lecture skills are a little rusty. The rose window class seemed to go well, and I had a good turnout for a class scheduled first thing in the morning. No one snored, so I guess I did OK....8^)
stitchwitch was teaching a card game to fill in for a class that had gotten cancelled, so I checked it out--just so I could have additional games for people to try at 12th Night. Bran had been scheduled for two classes, so I attended the one on "what to do with your heraldry". Now, in fairness, I know a fair bit about heraldry, so I shouldn't be too surprised that most people only think about heraldry being for shields and banners. Even when you aren't teaching, it is great to watch the proverbial light bulb go on over people's heads when they are introduced to a new idea that they can apply.
Alas, by waiting until the last moment to offer class proposals, I ended up bookending the day. I got to teach the first hour and the last hour. That isn't so bad in and of itself, but it just made for a long day. The second class I taught was on cordials. Yes, I wrote about both of the classes in an earlier posting. I wasn't as comfortable with the brewing topic since I don't really brew very frequently. I'm afraid that I was a little more rambling in my approach (and I apologize to my students). However, they walked away with recipes, good advice, and a load of encouragement to experiment. I saw a couple of people perk up at things I mentioned, so I did what I set out to do.
ealdthryth and pinkleader contrived to keep me on-site at lunch time to ensure that I would attend Convocation. How difficult was that? Honestly, not very. Convocation is similar to Court, and I, as a long-time Court Herald, am a Court Junkie™. It was deemed necessary because pinkleader bestowed an honorary Doctorate upon me. wyvern-or made a gorgeous certificate for the occasion, and I have to find a good spot for it. Since most of our wallspace is hidden by bookshelves, actual pictures and the like hanging from the wall are rather rare. Last night, I think I may have found a good place for it. You like me, you really like me!
As usual, though, we ended up staying on-site until nearly every one else was gone. Bran had a lot of catching up with people to do. It didn't really make us terribly late getting back to Charlotte, though. The trip back was, in some ways, even more entertaining than the trip to University. Of course, that could have been dangerous. At one point, we were all laughing so hard I nearly ran off the road. EEEK!
Choo Choo, Woo Hoo!
Many years ago, I knew a fellow model railroader who travelled a great deal because of his job as a carillon installer. Often, his job took him to the east coast of North Carolina, and he would make a minor detour to a hobby shop he knew about. At that time, I didn't have much cause to travel other than SCA events, so his reminicences about this wonderful hobby shop pretty much amounted to taunting. Oh it has this, and it has that, and it has the other, too! Boy, are YOU missing out.
Well, to be honest, whenever we go a on a long trip to an event, I wistfully check the hobby shop advertisements in the back of my model magazine. There might be the slightest chance we pass by one of them on a trip, and, like the intensity of light, the chance that it will be open when we do decreases as a function of the square of the distance we travel. Forget Sundays, none of them ever seem to be open then, so the only chance I have is on the Friday segment of the trip. This time, it turned out we were going to drive right past this legendary shop on our way to and from University.
I gave ealdthryth the address so she could check GPS via her Crackberry and see where we should turn to stop by the store. I knew which town it was in, and I knew that we would pass by it during operating hours--as I had blatantly planned our morning departure accordingly. To my dismay, Google maps indicated that we had passed by the turn 20 or 30 minutes back. ACK! I was extremely disappointed, and resigned myself to missing out on the side trip. And then we passed a sign post indicating the town was still 15 or 20 minutes ahead. I insisted that ealdthryth double-check. After all, looking at the physical map versus what Google claimed didn't make any sense. Why would the place have a street address in one town, but GPS show it in a completely different municipality that wasn't even nearby?!? After a little more online research, and ignoring Google maps, we determined that we were two exits away, and I got to shop.
Well, the slight detour to the legendary shop was indeed worth it. The only place that I have been to that was as large or as well-stocked was the shop next to the North Carolina Transportation Museum. They had just about anything you could order from the hobby manufacturers. I am so glad I don't drool.... Now, there are larger shops, but they are in major metro areas like New York City and Los Angeles, and they cater to the people who like railroads in those areas or (if the ratio of layouts displayed in the magazines are an accurate cross-section) the narrow gauge railroads of the Rockies.
I mentioned to the cashier that GPS had placed them in a different town. He nodded sagely and said that his own Garmin unit placed their shop in the middle of the lake down the road. It turns out that the municipalities are responsible for providing the dimensions of the addresses/plats to the map makers. The local town planners, apparently were lazy, so Google and the other mapping organizations simply plugged in a default number, so when locating an actual street address, you *might* get something in the vicinity.
In the end, I indulged in purchasing a couple of kits that I would have otherwise had to order without being able to inspect. One of my pet peeves about purchasing things other than books and certain commodities online is that I cannot inspect them and get a sense beyond a little 100x100 pixel image of the item of what it is that I am purchasing. I realize that it is completely impractical for every local shop to have a full complement of these things, so I appreciate finding a shop that does. We continued our journey with me in a much more cheerful mood. I was happy already, but the stop by itself would have made my weekend regardless of whatever else might have happened.
You Smell Like Dog Fu
Yeah, that just sounds wrong.... However, we visited the parental units on our way back from University, and they have two rather amusing and sweet dogs. People! Our FAVORITE! One of them loves to lay down next to wherever the paternal unit is. The other just likes to be near anyone and everyone. She decided to take a swim, and dampness simply creates eau de dog. The cats were very curious about this eau de dog that we had acquired during our absence from home. Ignatius and Josie in particular were concerned that ealdthryth's elbow smelled like dog breath where my folks' dogs had licked her....
The cats didn't seem to be put out by our absence otherwise, but I noted with great amusement that the robe had migrated back down to the bottom of the staircase....