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jamesqHidden Treasures/DragonSlayer was today. I had a good time. It's would have been a great time, if the temperature had been about ten degrees cooler.
Getting there was a battle. I left 45 minutes to get from the Dalhousie Hive to the site, which is just a few klicks west of WestHills. On a Saturday it should take about twenty minutes to drive. When there isn't construction. For those of you unfamiliar with the weather in Calgary, it's divided into four seasons:
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garething, stephtopia and I were a few minutes late for the lists (but they still let us enter the DragonBlinder competion). I rushed to assemble my bow and Steph heralded me before their excellencies Hero and Malabar. A herald's job is to sing my praises and get the crowd riled up for me. I asked her to make things up, so she said I was renowned from Vancouver to Calgary for my virility. Now I'm not saying that's not true - It's just that how would anyone know? Oh right, get a Herald.
Then we shot for the DragonBlinder (Which is the Baronial Archery Champion). I didn't do nearly as well as I thought I should, but apparently I did a lot better then I thought - I came in second (again, like last year) Last year I was second to Elias Silver, this year I came in second togarething (or Gareth Stringbreaker as he's known to the SCAdians). I didn't find this out until court though. Elias just told us that one of us had come in first and the other had come in second. Here is how the conversations went between us that day:
Of course, it's a big damn job more then it is a glorious prize, so what we really meant was this:
Later we did the second roving target shot. This was twenty four targets set up around an outdoor range. It was organized like golf. We had a card to record our scores on and we went through it, taking care not to get to close to the groups ahead of us so that we didn't accidentally shoot them. The targets were mostly Avacalian "celebrites". i.e. well known archers, heavy fighters and rapier fighters from around Avacal. I recognized Dalton, Morrigan,madeileen, Illyanth, Bartholomew, Elias Silver, and Allistair.
In this tournament, I once again came in second (to Elias, natch). I had a lot of fun though.
I might have come in third, butgarething had to bow out due to heat stroke. Also in our foursome was Argent and Nook. Nook is from Borealis and was a lot of fun to shoot with, though this was only the third time he had picked up a traditional bow (he normally shoots with crossbow). He picked it up fast though, his second half scores were markedly improved over his first half. Give that guy an hour worth of instruction during one of our Friday night practices and he'd be shooting up a storm.
Argent is always entertaining to hang around with. He's a good archer and also charming as hell. He's newly single though which is annoying because it means more competition with me.
stephtopia and ya_inga rounded out our group. They didn't shoot (which is a shame) but they did provide great company. It led me to my brilliant idea that what this competition needs next year is caddies! We load them up with back packs and empty hip quivers. They can carry found/broken arrows and water. We could recruit from the water bearers group in fact since that would be there primary duty. God knows we needed them this weekend. It was 30+ degrees out there this weekend.
Steph is always fun to be with of course, but I had no idea how much fun Inga was. I've always been hesitant to approach her because she's one of the cool kids. The frosty (and occasionally violently hostile) reception I got from the cool kids when I was still going to school has given me a negative knee jerk reaction to her group. They call themselves the "An Tir Cool Kids", and while I know they're just having fun with it, in my mind it gets translated to "An Tir People Who Will Pick On the Nerds Like Me". It's completely irrational on my part I know (because they're SCAdians, and therefore have no business accusing others of nerd-like behavior), but it's still there. Plus I have had frosty receptions from other "An Tir cool kids". I'm hoping this was just bad timing on my part and not actually snubbing. We'll see.
Anyhow, I'm happy to report that Inga is nothing like that and is actually one of the nicest, most interesting people I've met in the SCA recently. It was nice getting to know her and I look forward to chatting with her in the future.
We eventually got back from our march through the blistering hot sun and submitted our scores. Then we collapsed in shady spots like lions on the veldt and spent the next few hours socializing with assorted worthies. Then came court.
As expected, Elias spent a lot of time walking back and forth to accept awards and accolades. Gareth took over from him as the DragonBlinder. I felt that I was off the hook for the rest of court, but it was not to be - I was inducted into the Order of the Golden Link!
I am honored, elated and baffled by my admission to this order. Honored and elated because it is given for service to the Barony. Baffled because Hero and Malabar said it was for my work on the Baronial website (which hasn't had a decent update in months) as well as my humour and wise council.
Who is this guy impersonating me to Their Excellencies and should I thump him or thank him? Whenever I try to be funny I end up being described as creepy (or worse). As for wise council, the last good idea I had was for turning Pez dispensers into vibrators (And I still think I could make a ton of cash off this).
Court had one big down and one big up after that. The big downer was Hero and Malabar's announcement that they would be stepping down at 12th Night. It was not unexpected as they always said it would be about a two year reign, and Hero is so pregnant that they had to skip Quad War and every second question Hero fielded this weekend was "You're not going into labour this second are you?".
She was supposed to induce today, so it's possible that they already have a little baron-ling crying, sleeping, pooping, feeding and otherwise being baby-like. Haven't heard anything yet though, and I predict that when she does give birth it will spread through the Barony like wildfire.
I will be sad to see them go, they are largely responsible for my current level of involvement in the SCA. Of course, they're not dropping off the face of the Known Worlde, but it was nice to see good people in charge. Especially good people that I know personally. I'm hearing rumours of several couples who are going to try for Baron & Baroness in the upcoming polling. if the rumours are true, we've got a lot of good talent coming up and I wish them all well.
The Up for court was the last award given by Prince Kvigr. It was an Award of Arms for someone I recommended! Now I doubt it was just me that recommended her, but I like to think I tipped the scale over. She deserves it because she works damn hard to make the game good for everyone. Maybe in a few years she'll be Baroness. That would be very interesting.
I went home after that and passed out after a hot, tiring, fun day.
Getting there was a battle. I left 45 minutes to get from the Dalhousie Hive to the site, which is just a few klicks west of WestHills. On a Saturday it should take about twenty minutes to drive. When there isn't construction. For those of you unfamiliar with the weather in Calgary, it's divided into four seasons:
- Almost Winter
- Winter
- Still Winter
- Construction
garething, stephtopia and I were a few minutes late for the lists (but they still let us enter the DragonBlinder competion). I rushed to assemble my bow and Steph heralded me before their excellencies Hero and Malabar. A herald's job is to sing my praises and get the crowd riled up for me. I asked her to make things up, so she said I was renowned from Vancouver to Calgary for my virility. Now I'm not saying that's not true - It's just that how would anyone know? Oh right, get a Herald.Then we shot for the DragonBlinder (Which is the Baronial Archery Champion). I didn't do nearly as well as I thought I should, but apparently I did a lot better then I thought - I came in second (again, like last year) Last year I was second to Elias Silver, this year I came in second to
garething (or Gareth Stringbreaker as he's known to the SCAdians). I didn't find this out until court though. Elias just told us that one of us had come in first and the other had come in second. Here is how the conversations went between us that day:You're the new DragonBlinder.We sounded like the Goofy Gophers.
No, You're the new DragonBlinder.
I shot like ass, so it must be you.
No, I was terrible so it must be you.
Of course, it's a big damn job more then it is a glorious prize, so what we really meant was this:
I hope you're the new DragonBlinder.He's already full of ideas for the two tournaments he has to run and I've been giving my input. It appears that I'm his de facto lackey.
No, I hope you're the new DragonBlinder.
Later we did the second roving target shot. This was twenty four targets set up around an outdoor range. It was organized like golf. We had a card to record our scores on and we went through it, taking care not to get to close to the groups ahead of us so that we didn't accidentally shoot them. The targets were mostly Avacalian "celebrites". i.e. well known archers, heavy fighters and rapier fighters from around Avacal. I recognized Dalton, Morrigan,
madeileen, Illyanth, Bartholomew, Elias Silver, and Allistair.In this tournament, I once again came in second (to Elias, natch). I had a lot of fun though.
I might have come in third, but
garething had to bow out due to heat stroke. Also in our foursome was Argent and Nook. Nook is from Borealis and was a lot of fun to shoot with, though this was only the third time he had picked up a traditional bow (he normally shoots with crossbow). He picked it up fast though, his second half scores were markedly improved over his first half. Give that guy an hour worth of instruction during one of our Friday night practices and he'd be shooting up a storm.Argent is always entertaining to hang around with. He's a good archer and also charming as hell. He's newly single though which is annoying because it means more competition with me.
stephtopia and ya_inga rounded out our group. They didn't shoot (which is a shame) but they did provide great company. It led me to my brilliant idea that what this competition needs next year is caddies! We load them up with back packs and empty hip quivers. They can carry found/broken arrows and water. We could recruit from the water bearers group in fact since that would be there primary duty. God knows we needed them this weekend. It was 30+ degrees out there this weekend.Steph is always fun to be with of course, but I had no idea how much fun Inga was. I've always been hesitant to approach her because she's one of the cool kids. The frosty (and occasionally violently hostile) reception I got from the cool kids when I was still going to school has given me a negative knee jerk reaction to her group. They call themselves the "An Tir Cool Kids", and while I know they're just having fun with it, in my mind it gets translated to "An Tir People Who Will Pick On the Nerds Like Me". It's completely irrational on my part I know (because they're SCAdians, and therefore have no business accusing others of nerd-like behavior), but it's still there. Plus I have had frosty receptions from other "An Tir cool kids". I'm hoping this was just bad timing on my part and not actually snubbing. We'll see.
Anyhow, I'm happy to report that Inga is nothing like that and is actually one of the nicest, most interesting people I've met in the SCA recently. It was nice getting to know her and I look forward to chatting with her in the future.
We eventually got back from our march through the blistering hot sun and submitted our scores. Then we collapsed in shady spots like lions on the veldt and spent the next few hours socializing with assorted worthies. Then came court.
As expected, Elias spent a lot of time walking back and forth to accept awards and accolades. Gareth took over from him as the DragonBlinder. I felt that I was off the hook for the rest of court, but it was not to be - I was inducted into the Order of the Golden Link!
I am honored, elated and baffled by my admission to this order. Honored and elated because it is given for service to the Barony. Baffled because Hero and Malabar said it was for my work on the Baronial website (which hasn't had a decent update in months) as well as my humour and wise council.
Who is this guy impersonating me to Their Excellencies and should I thump him or thank him? Whenever I try to be funny I end up being described as creepy (or worse). As for wise council, the last good idea I had was for turning Pez dispensers into vibrators (And I still think I could make a ton of cash off this).
Court had one big down and one big up after that. The big downer was Hero and Malabar's announcement that they would be stepping down at 12th Night. It was not unexpected as they always said it would be about a two year reign, and Hero is so pregnant that they had to skip Quad War and every second question Hero fielded this weekend was "You're not going into labour this second are you?".
She was supposed to induce today, so it's possible that they already have a little baron-ling crying, sleeping, pooping, feeding and otherwise being baby-like. Haven't heard anything yet though, and I predict that when she does give birth it will spread through the Barony like wildfire.
I will be sad to see them go, they are largely responsible for my current level of involvement in the SCA. Of course, they're not dropping off the face of the Known Worlde, but it was nice to see good people in charge. Especially good people that I know personally. I'm hearing rumours of several couples who are going to try for Baron & Baroness in the upcoming polling. if the rumours are true, we've got a lot of good talent coming up and I wish them all well.
The Up for court was the last award given by Prince Kvigr. It was an Award of Arms for someone I recommended! Now I doubt it was just me that recommended her, but I like to think I tipped the scale over. She deserves it because she works damn hard to make the game good for everyone. Maybe in a few years she'll be Baroness. That would be very interesting.
I went home after that and passed out after a hot, tiring, fun day.
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no subject
Date: 2006-07-24 04:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-24 04:36 am (UTC)" Sorry, ask me that again.. the brain is medium well"
no subject
Date: 2006-07-24 01:00 pm (UTC)And don't doubt your ability to make people laugh, you do it on a regular basis. One person saying your creepy should not negate the many times that you have had us rolling on the floor...they clearly don't get you.
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Date: 2006-07-25 12:42 am (UTC)