jamesq | Philisophical Adventures in Archery

This post is about archery in the same way that The Big Lebowski is about bowling.
We all have our fantasies. Mine tend to be Walter Mitty type ones where I land the crippled aircraft, foil a bank robbery or thwart a suicide bomber. A particular favorite is being able to send information back to myself in the past so that I can act on it. My indulgences in these sorts of things waxes and wains depending on my current mood. The frequency goes up when I'm particularly depressed and decreases when I'm happy with my lot in life.

So far there's nothing there that is different from most people. I do have a tendency to analyze them though, which is possibly less universal. For example, I know just enough about chaos theory to know that having fore knowledge of the future would likely prevent that future from coming about. See The Butterfly Effect for a gruesome example. Go back too far and you could jeopardize the very existence of people you know. With small things it's better, but what use is that sort of superpower if you think "damn I wish I could go back in time so I could have ordered the cheescake instead of the fudge sundae".

Yesterday was Montegarde's Twelfth Night celebration - basically the biggest event of the year for the local SCA. It started with an archery tournament.

garething describes it here.

The tournament was spread into six "ends". One end was a speed round at ten yards. As many arrows as you could let fly in thirty seconds. one point per arrow in the target. I got five points here (I shot six arrows, but one missed).

The other five ends were different. Basically you had to shoot five arrows at each of the twenty, thirty and forty yard targets. An arrow at twenty got you one point, thirty yard targets were two points per "hit" and the forty yard target was three points per hit. The only complicating factor was that the twenty yard target was what we call a "friend or foe" - it was a village you were defending against the viking hordes. There were five vikings on the target and a bunch of villagers. Vikings were the target and the villagers were negative points. Presumably you didn't want to shoot your fellow villagers. Oh yeah, get all five Vikings and you got a bonus eight points! Your final ten arrows could be shot at any range you pleased - including attempts to get all five of the Vikings at the twenty (i.e. you did not need to get them all at once - this becomes important later in my story)

I shot the forty first, getting 5/5 hits (a fantastic start). Then I shot at the thirty, getting 3/5 (I suck at the thirty). I then got 4/5 at the twenty, hitting four of the Vikings. I missed the fifth Viking, hitting a melodramatic villager instead (she was drawn with a "woe is me" pose).

For my extra arrows, I figured I'd shoot that pesky fifth Viking, then shoot the rest at the forty because that was where the points were. It was that damn bonus eight points - I got greedy. Instead, I shot a kid. Swearing, I aimed at the fifth Viking again, missing him by an inch. It was then that I came to my senses and realised that the fifth Viking was a black hole where arrows entered by points did not emerge. I had -1 points for my two arrows at the twenty. I then shot the last eight arrows at the forty, but because I was shifting targets (as well as being a little bit pissed off at myself) I only got 4/8.

Grand Total: 40 points. At least two people beat me:

garething, and Dalton (who won, and only missed once. Notably, he didn't go for the bonus points at the twenty).

If I could go back in time, I'd change how I shot the targets.

Actually no, if I could go back in time, you'd all be addressing me as "God Emperor Cyr" and I'd be absolute ruler of the Earth. Take that Walter Mitty!

If I could go back in time, and had no imagination whatsoever, I'd change how I'd shoot. Specifically, I wouldn't try for the bonus points at twenty. I'd also have shot fifteen arrows at the forty right off the top while I was still on a role and feeling fresh.

Of course, I'd have still lost to Dalton, but I wouldn't feel so bad about it.

Conversely, I don't feel that I needed to change anything about any other part of the day. Considering how past 12th Nights have gone, this is an accomplishment.

The day started with me getting up stupidly early so that I could be prepared for 12th Night. I packed my stuff, brushed off the car and picked up Gareth & Kirin. Then I went downtown to pick up T and followed it up by going to Altadore to pick up J. Finally, the five of us went to the Calgary Archery Centre, where I screwed up as described above.

I also discovered that J wasn't going to participate! Why get up that early in the morning if you're not going to shoot! Especially if you've been shooting for the last three weeks in preparation! So i talked her into it, and S managed to get her outfitted with seconds to spare. I don't know her end score, but she managed to hit something each end, so she couldn't have done too badly.

Later I dropped T off and took Gareth and Kirin back home. I changed into my garb and stopped off at Big T's for lunch. I bought a small lunch for

hislittlekitty who had earlier complained about a lack of food (low blood sugar tends to sneak up on her and clobber her, so I figured I'd be nice - besides, it's the SCA, I'm supposed to be chivalrous).

I watched a little bit of the rapier tournament, hung out with lots of friends, volunteered for about an hour at troll and helped move furniture around for court.

As some of you have gleaned from past posts and conversations with me, I like J - a lot. One of my goals for 12th Night was to be gracious and charming and funny and ask her out on a date in the real world. All without being creepy or coming across as a stalker. I think I succeeded.

Well, I succeeded in asking her out at any rate. I gather from her reaction (which was not abject terror) that I succeeded in the gracious/charming/funny part.

She said "maybe", so it could have gone better. "Maybe" is not a "No" though so it could also have gone a lot worse. I expect to hear from her later this week (most likely at archery on Friday, which will be cutting things rather fine as the date is for Theatre Calgary on Saturday). I have high hopes.

Here's the thing though, I was nervous as hell prior to asking her out, but now I'm not - it is now out of my hands and worrying will accomplish nothing.

If she says "Yes', great, we have a date, see a decent play (Saint Joan - it won a pulitzer prize!), have some pleasant dinner conversation and maybe a chance for date #2. I get to know someone who seems nice and funny and intelligent a little better.

If she says "No", well, at least I've failed in trying instead of failing by not trying, which is how these things went for me in the past. I'll be disappointed, but not devastated.

What else happened? Gareth and I got called up to court to receive our "Master Archer" medallions. These are painted leather and are meant to be attached to the quiver, which is what I'm going to do. Nothing like getting SCA bling. It's fun!

Two minor SCA points that I couldn't fit into the narrative otherwise:

1) Chatted with a guy who didn't go up to court when requested (it was one of those "Would all members of the Malodorus Menagarie present themselves to the court" things). I asked him why and he said, with a withering tone, "I will not bend my knee to them" referring to the Baron & Baroness, who are friends of mine, which he knows. Lighten up dude, the fact that your friends are not B&B anymore is not their fault.

2) Between 12th Night and recent SCA meetings, I'm suddenly hearing lots of buzz about Avacal (the principality that includes Alberta and Saskatcheman - as well as the parts of BC that should be in Alberta if the line were drawn straight) becoming a kingdom. I'm all for this.