Pennsic XLII - Friday War Week
2013 Aug 2 Fri: Pennsic, War Week
Fri 06:31
Someone's alarm went off a little while ago. There's nothing I have to get up for today.
89 text alerts on my phone overnight, and the battery's almost dead; recharging now.
Fri 07:24
note to Erin:
When I picked up my water bottle this morning it was surprisingly light. I drank a lot of water Thursday afternoon. I was worried about how often I was needing to pee; turns out it was perfectly normal. (I did notice I wasn't thirsty during the concert.)
[Give URL for photos. Explain ?/atpic situation; mention pending blog entry.]
[2017: That preceding aside was in the original entry. Looking back, atpic.com has lost my photos multiple times. Metadata (descriptions) was also lost, and was extremely tedious to add (the first time; no way anyone's doing it again). Photos can be (re-)uploaded in batches, but all journal links to them are broken. I am running my own website now and hosting my own photos, some of which have been in this Pennsic's journal. My links are stable, and metadata is almost easy.]
07:45
Just found voice mail from yesterday afternoon about working Saturday wee-hours morning: "As you know, [Project] is failing back to the new production servers at 01:00 Saturday morning." Well, no, I didn't know this.
(a) I haven't seen email for almost 2 weeks.*
(b) I expect my inbox is full, so I couldn't receive the email anyway.
I don't have much idea about what's been going on at work, except that I have been receiving a lot of pages - enough to fill up my cellphone's memory and run its battery down. I have been inferring from the server names in the alerts that Production has not been failed back over to the new servers. And I have been wondering why that hasn't happened yet. Now I know it's happening this weekend. I should be driving back Saturday afternoon; I won't be back nor on the Internet Saturday morning. And I will get home tired, and I will have a lot of things that need doing at home after my two weeks away. (And there's no telling what shape anniemal has been in these two weeks; things could be fine, or a wreck.)
*I repeatedly mentioned that I would not have Internet access while I was gone. No checking email. No assisting remotely (other than voice - with no access to my notes). What part of that do they not get? I cannot send you my resume. I cannot work a production failover Saturday.
I don't expect others to know the details of my life. But when I specifically mention details because I think they will affect you (I won't have Internet. Take me off the alert list because it will fill up my mailbox faster, and delivery-failure notices are damned annoying.), I wish someone would attend to them.
Fri 09:42
Cellphone is charged; don't know when it finished.
Apparently there are still battles today. But no classes, concerts, or dances.
The camp meal "plan" was $6.50/day. Quite reasonable. (Includes propane for the hot showers.) ("Propane" was not known to the spell check?)
10:00
I found the text to (all?) 6 verses of "To Anacreon in Heaven" in my recorder case. (This came up earlier in the week, besides Ray's mention of filks.) We [the Capriccio Catch Club] sang this at the MD RenFest at some point.
Reply to Catherine!
[2017: That one's a mystery.]
Fri 10:10
There are so many obese people here. I am curious about the health and education demographics of the SCA - and of Pennsic, since not everyone in the SCA goes to events like Pennsic, and not everyone at Pennsic is in the SCA.
I'm doing some packing in my tent. People are back in mundane clothes today, and there's lots of things I won't need to use again before I leave.
Fri 13:31
Lots of people are leaving today. I've just helped take the shower apart. Caer Edgemere (our camp) supplies the water heater and the propane, and House Bloodjack (next to us up the hill) sets up the shower (tent, plumbing, platforms, bench). The design has changed several times in my Pennsics.
I've had a can of chilli for lunch (I brought a lot of food that I haven't needed to eat), and Anna made chocolate cupcakes. There was mention of baking cookies later, and we're having baked ziti for dinner. That means there's a lot of stuff that's not getting packed until tonight or tomorrow morning. (And everyone's supposed to be gone by Noon tomorrow.)
A lot of people are angry about Pennsic ending a day early this year. (Normally there'd still be classes and cermonies and probably shopping (the vendor rules seem to be fluid year-to-year, and mysterious) today. This is on top of moving Pennsic a week early. This was all done to accommodate bringing in a fireworks convention(?). Pennsic is huge, and certainly must make this campground's entire year. Our size cuts both ways; it would be difficult for us to relocate. But it's not out of the question. If some SCAdian won the lottery, buying and minimally developing a new site, rural, semi-wooded, is conceivable. Pennsic hasn't always been at Cooper's Lake.
Fri 14:30
It's raining now. This sucks for the people who are trying to leave today, because their gear is getting wet - especially tents that are still up. The dew was very heavy on them this morning, and if the weather isn't favorable tomorrow we too could be packing wet tents. And that means setting the tents up again at home to dry before they're packed away.
Fri 15:20
The rain did not last long. I don't think things got very wet. (I'd still set my tent up again at home.)
Fri 19:11
I brought my car down from the parking lot and moved some things into it, but since the rugs need to go in first, I can't really pack the car yet. All that happens tomorrow morning, after sleeping - then I can roll up the sleeping bag, deflate the air bed, roll up the rugs, and take down the tent. And then see where everything fits in the car.... The ice chest is also one of the first things in, and it's in, even though it's still got a lot in it to drink (and eat - lots of yogurt, nectarines, grapes, some cheese, and a bit of opened chicken spread). It was easier to keep it iced this year, since it wasn't as roasting hot as most of the Pennsics I've been to (so far - is this a plus for starting a week early, or just the randomness of weather - not climate?).
Fri 20:55
We've had ziti for dinner, and there's a lot left over. (Breakfast?) There should be cookies later tonight. There's a small (8 people? That's all we mustered this year.) new camp uphill of Bloodjack (our neighbors) and Anna has invited them down for cookies later, and to join our camp next year if they want to keep this general location. New, small camps tend to get bounced around, and Anna thinks these folks are a nice bunch.
It looked like Ray's batteries had gone dead, which meant no oven. I offered my battery to run it. (I shouldn't need to charge the laptop, Kindle, cellphone, or MP3 player/radio before I leave tomorrow. But it looks like there was a lose connection, and things are working again. There's not much more of my stuff I can pack/load tonight. Maybe I'll get to bed early? We have a lot to do tonight and tomorrow disassembling and packing the communal tent area.
Sat 00:37
We've all had our fill of chocolate-chip cookies, and there's more left. And there's ziti left too, so we have options for breakfast. Some of the personal tents are down, and some people are sleeping in the communal tent or sharing with others. We have a lot to do before noon tomorrow, and we're hoping it's not raining in the morning.
213 text pages from work today, and the failover of Production should be starting in about 20 minutes. They could run the phone's battery down before I get home.
[This entry was originally posted as http://syntonic-comma.dreamwidth.org/616134.html on Dreamwidth (where there are
comments).]
Fri 06:31
Someone's alarm went off a little while ago. There's nothing I have to get up for today.
89 text alerts on my phone overnight, and the battery's almost dead; recharging now.
Fri 07:24
note to Erin:
When I picked up my water bottle this morning it was surprisingly light. I drank a lot of water Thursday afternoon. I was worried about how often I was needing to pee; turns out it was perfectly normal. (I did notice I wasn't thirsty during the concert.)
[Give URL for photos. Explain ?/atpic situation; mention pending blog entry.]
[2017: That preceding aside was in the original entry. Looking back, atpic.com has lost my photos multiple times. Metadata (descriptions) was also lost, and was extremely tedious to add (the first time; no way anyone's doing it again). Photos can be (re-)uploaded in batches, but all journal links to them are broken. I am running my own website now and hosting my own photos, some of which have been in this Pennsic's journal. My links are stable, and metadata is almost easy.]
07:45
Just found voice mail from yesterday afternoon about working Saturday wee-hours morning: "As you know, [Project] is failing back to the new production servers at 01:00 Saturday morning." Well, no, I didn't know this.
(a) I haven't seen email for almost 2 weeks.*
(b) I expect my inbox is full, so I couldn't receive the email anyway.
I don't have much idea about what's been going on at work, except that I have been receiving a lot of pages - enough to fill up my cellphone's memory and run its battery down. I have been inferring from the server names in the alerts that Production has not been failed back over to the new servers. And I have been wondering why that hasn't happened yet. Now I know it's happening this weekend. I should be driving back Saturday afternoon; I won't be back nor on the Internet Saturday morning. And I will get home tired, and I will have a lot of things that need doing at home after my two weeks away. (And there's no telling what shape anniemal has been in these two weeks; things could be fine, or a wreck.)
*I repeatedly mentioned that I would not have Internet access while I was gone. No checking email. No assisting remotely (other than voice - with no access to my notes). What part of that do they not get? I cannot send you my resume. I cannot work a production failover Saturday.
I don't expect others to know the details of my life. But when I specifically mention details because I think they will affect you (I won't have Internet. Take me off the alert list because it will fill up my mailbox faster, and delivery-failure notices are damned annoying.), I wish someone would attend to them.
Fri 09:42
Cellphone is charged; don't know when it finished.
Apparently there are still battles today. But no classes, concerts, or dances.
The camp meal "plan" was $6.50/day. Quite reasonable. (Includes propane for the hot showers.) ("Propane" was not known to the spell check?)
10:00
I found the text to (all?) 6 verses of "To Anacreon in Heaven" in my recorder case. (This came up earlier in the week, besides Ray's mention of filks.) We [the Capriccio Catch Club] sang this at the MD RenFest at some point.
Reply to Catherine!
[2017: That one's a mystery.]
Fri 10:10
There are so many obese people here. I am curious about the health and education demographics of the SCA - and of Pennsic, since not everyone in the SCA goes to events like Pennsic, and not everyone at Pennsic is in the SCA.
I'm doing some packing in my tent. People are back in mundane clothes today, and there's lots of things I won't need to use again before I leave.
Fri 13:31
Lots of people are leaving today. I've just helped take the shower apart. Caer Edgemere (our camp) supplies the water heater and the propane, and House Bloodjack (next to us up the hill) sets up the shower (tent, plumbing, platforms, bench). The design has changed several times in my Pennsics.
I've had a can of chilli for lunch (I brought a lot of food that I haven't needed to eat), and Anna made chocolate cupcakes. There was mention of baking cookies later, and we're having baked ziti for dinner. That means there's a lot of stuff that's not getting packed until tonight or tomorrow morning. (And everyone's supposed to be gone by Noon tomorrow.)
A lot of people are angry about Pennsic ending a day early this year. (Normally there'd still be classes and cermonies and probably shopping (the vendor rules seem to be fluid year-to-year, and mysterious) today. This is on top of moving Pennsic a week early. This was all done to accommodate bringing in a fireworks convention(?). Pennsic is huge, and certainly must make this campground's entire year. Our size cuts both ways; it would be difficult for us to relocate. But it's not out of the question. If some SCAdian won the lottery, buying and minimally developing a new site, rural, semi-wooded, is conceivable. Pennsic hasn't always been at Cooper's Lake.
Fri 14:30
It's raining now. This sucks for the people who are trying to leave today, because their gear is getting wet - especially tents that are still up. The dew was very heavy on them this morning, and if the weather isn't favorable tomorrow we too could be packing wet tents. And that means setting the tents up again at home to dry before they're packed away.
Fri 15:20
The rain did not last long. I don't think things got very wet. (I'd still set my tent up again at home.)
Fri 19:11
I brought my car down from the parking lot and moved some things into it, but since the rugs need to go in first, I can't really pack the car yet. All that happens tomorrow morning, after sleeping - then I can roll up the sleeping bag, deflate the air bed, roll up the rugs, and take down the tent. And then see where everything fits in the car.... The ice chest is also one of the first things in, and it's in, even though it's still got a lot in it to drink (and eat - lots of yogurt, nectarines, grapes, some cheese, and a bit of opened chicken spread). It was easier to keep it iced this year, since it wasn't as roasting hot as most of the Pennsics I've been to (so far - is this a plus for starting a week early, or just the randomness of weather - not climate?).
Fri 20:55
We've had ziti for dinner, and there's a lot left over. (Breakfast?) There should be cookies later tonight. There's a small (8 people? That's all we mustered this year.) new camp uphill of Bloodjack (our neighbors) and Anna has invited them down for cookies later, and to join our camp next year if they want to keep this general location. New, small camps tend to get bounced around, and Anna thinks these folks are a nice bunch.
It looked like Ray's batteries had gone dead, which meant no oven. I offered my battery to run it. (I shouldn't need to charge the laptop, Kindle, cellphone, or MP3 player/radio before I leave tomorrow. But it looks like there was a lose connection, and things are working again. There's not much more of my stuff I can pack/load tonight. Maybe I'll get to bed early? We have a lot to do tonight and tomorrow disassembling and packing the communal tent area.
Sat 00:37
We've all had our fill of chocolate-chip cookies, and there's more left. And there's ziti left too, so we have options for breakfast. Some of the personal tents are down, and some people are sleeping in the communal tent or sharing with others. We have a lot to do before noon tomorrow, and we're hoping it's not raining in the morning.
213 text pages from work today, and the failover of Production should be starting in about 20 minutes. They could run the phone's battery down before I get home.
[This entry was originally posted as http://syntonic-comma.dreamwidth.org/616134.html on Dreamwidth (where there are
comments).]