Post Pennsic sigh.......
OK. Survived it, after a two year hiatus. Had a lot of fun, visited a lot of friends, saw a lot of sights, did some serious purchasing, but ready to come back to the hoary groove and suburban zombiehood towards the end. Yeah, by day I'm a whitecollar lemming. By night and on the weekends, I go more primitive, less polished and my true nature runs free. No particularly PC and much as personal merit based. No paycheck involved so I'm more independent and outspoken. Not quite Fight Club, but not far off. And on the odd weekend, I wear funny clothes from a much earlier period and my name changes. This is the time my archaic artisan emerges unfettered and free.
For those of you unfamiliar with the SCA aka Society for Creative Anachronisms, its a medieval historical society. For most folks its somewhere between turkey legs at Renn Faires and pissing on your brass buttons for the right patina you often find in the American Civil War folks. You can choose your level of fanaticism and no one will say a thing, provided your thing doesn't involve elf ears or vampire famngs, and not even that if you have the one speck of common sense needed to keep it under wraps.
To most folks, its a party and dress up, which rocks.
The cool thing about it , originally for me anyway, is that you can wear real armor, be trained in how to move in it, fight in it and belong in a unit, or start your own....and you can climb in the ranks based on your own merit. Same with the other two major groups, the artisans and the organizers. The top for most are the 3-5% who are "Peers", whom some see in ALL CAPS and others, like me, generally see in small letters, like 8 font size. Gotta prove your actual worth to rate larger letters in my world. Social darwinism, applied in a natural selection medium. I'm a Peer in the artisan slot, but that doesn't mean crap if I don't keep earning it. Sometimes I even succeed.
Anyway, Pennsic is by far the largest gathering of this international organization. Not necessarily the most fun of the five large gatherings in the U.S., but racking up attendence between 10,000 - 15,000 attendees, most of whom are camping for 1-2 weeks, definitely the largest. This year I spearheaded my camp's Advance Party, setting up the perimeter, smoozing with the other campmasters on our designated block, generally networking into an already established setting. I had already checked in everyone in camp who had pre-registered, figured out the layout, roped off our area and set up our brand new common area tent before opening an ice cold beer in celebration! The block cartographer, Tristan, from Connecticut, bless his soul, is an accomplished brewer, that most noble of pursuits IMHO and generous with his products, a true sign of personal quality and earmark of a sterling person! I want to be like hiim if I ever grow up!
Our camp was started by several women, so its very matriarchial. I joined it purposely as unwashed fighter scum because I really liked The Ladies and you don't eat nearly as well in fighter based camps. Good food rates high in my world, can't eat testosterone though some have apparently tried! I prefer excellent vittles. They had a use for a fairly aggressive, strong willed guy who could remember his assigned role and I was raised by a tough Irish chick with a backbone and a will to shoot first, worry later , so it was like being home again, with less hassle!
That was a decade or two ago so now I'm a former fighter and sort of a Homer Simpson with a house full of teenagers I'm *indoctrinating* into my ethos of life, the SCA, firearms and to a degree, politics and religion. I prefer them to think for themselves and make their own decisions, including scrapping chunks of my training if it doesn't work in their worldview eventually. The SCA is a perfect medium for this because it teaches them strong ethics and habits, which are vital in leaders, but also exposes them to those who fail to measure up and the consequences of that, in a controlled, potentially positive scenerio. Strong role models, personal ethics that strengthen your character. An ideal place to teach my stepkids what they need to know in their early teenager years.
Yeah, I didn't contribute to their gene pools, but I shaped them as people in the mold that my uncles, all veterans of wars and military service, old school and quietly strong, productive, stable men shaped my cousins and my brothers. But I'm a neanderthal in a suit with polish. Apparently, my particular redhead likes that because she hasn't booted me out the door for cause....yet. I'd suck it up if that happened but in a perfect world, I'd prefer to grow old with her and corrupt our grandkids togethor.
What do you think about "Pappadok" as my *grampa* name for them? Personally, I like the thought of having the same name as a Haitian dictator, and with enough bags of candy and pop for bribes, I think its do-able!Type your cut contents here.
For those of you unfamiliar with the SCA aka Society for Creative Anachronisms, its a medieval historical society. For most folks its somewhere between turkey legs at Renn Faires and pissing on your brass buttons for the right patina you often find in the American Civil War folks. You can choose your level of fanaticism and no one will say a thing, provided your thing doesn't involve elf ears or vampire famngs, and not even that if you have the one speck of common sense needed to keep it under wraps.
To most folks, its a party and dress up, which rocks.
The cool thing about it , originally for me anyway, is that you can wear real armor, be trained in how to move in it, fight in it and belong in a unit, or start your own....and you can climb in the ranks based on your own merit. Same with the other two major groups, the artisans and the organizers. The top for most are the 3-5% who are "Peers", whom some see in ALL CAPS and others, like me, generally see in small letters, like 8 font size. Gotta prove your actual worth to rate larger letters in my world. Social darwinism, applied in a natural selection medium. I'm a Peer in the artisan slot, but that doesn't mean crap if I don't keep earning it. Sometimes I even succeed.
Anyway, Pennsic is by far the largest gathering of this international organization. Not necessarily the most fun of the five large gatherings in the U.S., but racking up attendence between 10,000 - 15,000 attendees, most of whom are camping for 1-2 weeks, definitely the largest. This year I spearheaded my camp's Advance Party, setting up the perimeter, smoozing with the other campmasters on our designated block, generally networking into an already established setting. I had already checked in everyone in camp who had pre-registered, figured out the layout, roped off our area and set up our brand new common area tent before opening an ice cold beer in celebration! The block cartographer, Tristan, from Connecticut, bless his soul, is an accomplished brewer, that most noble of pursuits IMHO and generous with his products, a true sign of personal quality and earmark of a sterling person! I want to be like hiim if I ever grow up!
Our camp was started by several women, so its very matriarchial. I joined it purposely as unwashed fighter scum because I really liked The Ladies and you don't eat nearly as well in fighter based camps. Good food rates high in my world, can't eat testosterone though some have apparently tried! I prefer excellent vittles. They had a use for a fairly aggressive, strong willed guy who could remember his assigned role and I was raised by a tough Irish chick with a backbone and a will to shoot first, worry later , so it was like being home again, with less hassle!
That was a decade or two ago so now I'm a former fighter and sort of a Homer Simpson with a house full of teenagers I'm *indoctrinating* into my ethos of life, the SCA, firearms and to a degree, politics and religion. I prefer them to think for themselves and make their own decisions, including scrapping chunks of my training if it doesn't work in their worldview eventually. The SCA is a perfect medium for this because it teaches them strong ethics and habits, which are vital in leaders, but also exposes them to those who fail to measure up and the consequences of that, in a controlled, potentially positive scenerio. Strong role models, personal ethics that strengthen your character. An ideal place to teach my stepkids what they need to know in their early teenager years.
Yeah, I didn't contribute to their gene pools, but I shaped them as people in the mold that my uncles, all veterans of wars and military service, old school and quietly strong, productive, stable men shaped my cousins and my brothers. But I'm a neanderthal in a suit with polish. Apparently, my particular redhead likes that because she hasn't booted me out the door for cause....yet. I'd suck it up if that happened but in a perfect world, I'd prefer to grow old with her and corrupt our grandkids togethor.
What do you think about "Pappadok" as my *grampa* name for them? Personally, I like the thought of having the same name as a Haitian dictator, and with enough bags of candy and pop for bribes, I think its do-able!Type your cut contents here.