Pennsic, the Great and Terrible
... or What I Sacked on My Summer Vacation...
You will, I hope, excuse the train-of-thought style of the following post. I'm afraid scattered is all you get. Feel free to make inquiries as you like for more info.
So, Pennsic is now in the past. It was good. Things were summat hectic leading up to it, but ragnvaeig did so damn much of the actual work in packing and such that I felt very bad about the whole stress thing. In the end, we got in, got set up, and it was all good. Was very fun hanging out with the House Three Moons crowd, meeting some interesting new folks (hey there, nathanofcatan), and generally farting about with no real result. There was remarkably little Pennsic Drama in our camp, which surprised me, with only a few drunken Incidents, most of them controllable.
Didn't do a tremendous amount of socializing this year - in fact, not one real party per se, nor even a trip to the (now "underground") Classic Swimming hole. Did, however, go out and meet up with a few people, including (if I map faces to lj names appropriately - always a trick) meriae, who fortuitously enough was camping near rowan_anwyl and glasgowprince (neither of whom read my journal, so far as I know, but, eh, they get a plug cuz we've met face-to-face). Fortuitous, I say, because ragnvaeig wanted to meet up with glasgowprince and, if not for meriae, we would never have found the bloody Glaswegian. Thanks to Christina, though, we were finally able to meet up the night before we split - sorry to rowan_anwyl and glasgowprince for not swinging by the day after, but we were helping to strike the camp and pack up, and I was too knackered to be much use - not to mention the rest of the caravan were raring to go after the sky opened up. Still, despite some Drunken Pennsic Drama (not on the part of any of the good people we came out to see, but unfortunately impacting them) it was a fine evening, and a lot of fun. I'm glad we met up.
Took as well several classes, including but not limited to... Gambeson construction (Which included some suggestions for instead doing it like a t-tunic in three parts, which was more useful for my Viking persona). Cymry y dyn ni (We are Welshmen, a course on building a Welsh persona), Whilst Life Swayeth in my Inward Parts (Which purported to be a course on period letter writing, but was more than 50% devoted to period letter folding/sealing/posting, it seemed), Composing Skaldic Verse (Which was rather cool, but ran rather short on time in a one-hour slot. I don't blame Toki (the instructor), but rather people who came in with no conception of things like meter, stressed/unstressed syllables, and alliteration/internal rhyme - since those were the bloody basis of the whole thing), Building Blocks of Old English Poetry (Which I took before Skaldic Verse, not knowing the latter existed. Was still rather interesting, even if I was helping out the instructor in point explanation as much as learning), and Talk Like a Viking (being pennsic, this focused on phrases like "Your tent or mine?" (þinn tjald og minn?) "May I have {x} more beers?" (Maü eg hava {x} mära björ?) and "Run while you can, monkey boy!" (Renna stund þu fær, apistrakur!)).
There were others - which I will discuss as several in one group, and one in greater detail.
First, I took a course in beginner spear-throwing. It was awesome. In another patent moment of Instinctual Vikingness, I kicked some ass. From the start, was pretty much always sinking them right in the "chest". Didn't miss the target once, threw no low and lefts (which is, of course, the righthander bias). After my first toss, the instructor told me I should've been going for my war point. All of which is to say, I needs to make me some spears and get even more dangerous. I'm certainly more gifted at that than archery. Why fight it?
And, finally, the Pennsic Epiphany - or "How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Expense my Vacation."
This year, I took several Bardic courses, including: Storytelling in Persona, Tips for Aspiring Bards, Storytelling Tips, Telling Stories to an Audience, etc. In several of them, the instructor asked if the people in the crowd "told stories", usually as an intro to pointing out that we all, to one degree or another, tell stories. I usually vacillated over whether to say that I "told stories", because I do on occaision tell stories about things that happened to me, or stuff I hear that I find cool. It was, I think, during Toki Redbeard's "Telling Stories to an Audience", that something smacked me upside the head and a voice rang out "You tell stories for a living, fucktard. In Persona, no less. Moron." And I had a laugh and regretted there weren't more bardic classes where I could claim to tell stories professionally. It wasn't until later in the evening that it occurred to me that those classes, therefore, were job training. In that moment, a grand scheme was born.
So, I checked in at work. Sure enough, technically, since I was spending portions of every day learning skills I use on the job, it can, in fact, be listed on a Schedule C. As, I discovered, can my purchases of re-enactment clothing, of books on revolutionary history... it's a whole aspect to my job I had never previously considered. The big moment was the enormous grin when it was pointed out that, not only could I list Pennsic registration costs, I could also list my SCA membership, and the mileage travelling to and from Slippery Rock. Also, half my food bill, but who keeps receipts on food at Pennsic?
PS - Being that bloody Hammer (AKA "Decius", best pronounced with a hard "c" and a schwa in place of the "e", for those in on the joke) beat me to the battlefield this war, I'm all the more determined to get into heavy combat in the next year. Therefore, if you know of places for acquiring cheap SCA armor, let me know. If you have friends throwing out shag carpeting, thick plastic barrels, sheet metal... let me know. If you have suggestions for things to scrounge/buy cheap for putting together armor beyond the aforementioned... let me know. If you have a good source for cheap rattan... you get it. About the only thing I've the full equipment to easily construct, is a pell, and that tends to come in handy only after you are personally equipped.
You will, I hope, excuse the train-of-thought style of the following post. I'm afraid scattered is all you get. Feel free to make inquiries as you like for more info.
So, Pennsic is now in the past. It was good. Things were summat hectic leading up to it, but ragnvaeig did so damn much of the actual work in packing and such that I felt very bad about the whole stress thing. In the end, we got in, got set up, and it was all good. Was very fun hanging out with the House Three Moons crowd, meeting some interesting new folks (hey there, nathanofcatan), and generally farting about with no real result. There was remarkably little Pennsic Drama in our camp, which surprised me, with only a few drunken Incidents, most of them controllable.
Didn't do a tremendous amount of socializing this year - in fact, not one real party per se, nor even a trip to the (now "underground") Classic Swimming hole. Did, however, go out and meet up with a few people, including (if I map faces to lj names appropriately - always a trick) meriae, who fortuitously enough was camping near rowan_anwyl and glasgowprince (neither of whom read my journal, so far as I know, but, eh, they get a plug cuz we've met face-to-face). Fortuitous, I say, because ragnvaeig wanted to meet up with glasgowprince and, if not for meriae, we would never have found the bloody Glaswegian. Thanks to Christina, though, we were finally able to meet up the night before we split - sorry to rowan_anwyl and glasgowprince for not swinging by the day after, but we were helping to strike the camp and pack up, and I was too knackered to be much use - not to mention the rest of the caravan were raring to go after the sky opened up. Still, despite some Drunken Pennsic Drama (not on the part of any of the good people we came out to see, but unfortunately impacting them) it was a fine evening, and a lot of fun. I'm glad we met up.
Took as well several classes, including but not limited to... Gambeson construction (Which included some suggestions for instead doing it like a t-tunic in three parts, which was more useful for my Viking persona). Cymry y dyn ni (We are Welshmen, a course on building a Welsh persona), Whilst Life Swayeth in my Inward Parts (Which purported to be a course on period letter writing, but was more than 50% devoted to period letter folding/sealing/posting, it seemed), Composing Skaldic Verse (Which was rather cool, but ran rather short on time in a one-hour slot. I don't blame Toki (the instructor), but rather people who came in with no conception of things like meter, stressed/unstressed syllables, and alliteration/internal rhyme - since those were the bloody basis of the whole thing), Building Blocks of Old English Poetry (Which I took before Skaldic Verse, not knowing the latter existed. Was still rather interesting, even if I was helping out the instructor in point explanation as much as learning), and Talk Like a Viking (being pennsic, this focused on phrases like "Your tent or mine?" (þinn tjald og minn?) "May I have {x} more beers?" (Maü eg hava {x} mära björ?) and "Run while you can, monkey boy!" (Renna stund þu fær, apistrakur!)).
There were others - which I will discuss as several in one group, and one in greater detail.
First, I took a course in beginner spear-throwing. It was awesome. In another patent moment of Instinctual Vikingness, I kicked some ass. From the start, was pretty much always sinking them right in the "chest". Didn't miss the target once, threw no low and lefts (which is, of course, the righthander bias). After my first toss, the instructor told me I should've been going for my war point. All of which is to say, I needs to make me some spears and get even more dangerous. I'm certainly more gifted at that than archery. Why fight it?
And, finally, the Pennsic Epiphany - or "How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Expense my Vacation."
This year, I took several Bardic courses, including: Storytelling in Persona, Tips for Aspiring Bards, Storytelling Tips, Telling Stories to an Audience, etc. In several of them, the instructor asked if the people in the crowd "told stories", usually as an intro to pointing out that we all, to one degree or another, tell stories. I usually vacillated over whether to say that I "told stories", because I do on occaision tell stories about things that happened to me, or stuff I hear that I find cool. It was, I think, during Toki Redbeard's "Telling Stories to an Audience", that something smacked me upside the head and a voice rang out "You tell stories for a living, fucktard. In Persona, no less. Moron." And I had a laugh and regretted there weren't more bardic classes where I could claim to tell stories professionally. It wasn't until later in the evening that it occurred to me that those classes, therefore, were job training. In that moment, a grand scheme was born.
So, I checked in at work. Sure enough, technically, since I was spending portions of every day learning skills I use on the job, it can, in fact, be listed on a Schedule C. As, I discovered, can my purchases of re-enactment clothing, of books on revolutionary history... it's a whole aspect to my job I had never previously considered. The big moment was the enormous grin when it was pointed out that, not only could I list Pennsic registration costs, I could also list my SCA membership, and the mileage travelling to and from Slippery Rock. Also, half my food bill, but who keeps receipts on food at Pennsic?
PS - Being that bloody Hammer (AKA "Decius", best pronounced with a hard "c" and a schwa in place of the "e", for those in on the joke) beat me to the battlefield this war, I'm all the more determined to get into heavy combat in the next year. Therefore, if you know of places for acquiring cheap SCA armor, let me know. If you have friends throwing out shag carpeting, thick plastic barrels, sheet metal... let me know. If you have suggestions for things to scrounge/buy cheap for putting together armor beyond the aforementioned... let me know. If you have a good source for cheap rattan... you get it. About the only thing I've the full equipment to easily construct, is a pell, and that tends to come in handy only after you are personally equipped.