Dragonslayer 2018 GBU
Jul. 15th, 2018 10:36 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jamesqYesterday was Montengarde's annual Dragonslayer event, wherein they choose who will be the armoured champion (The Dragonslayer) and the archery champion (Dragonblinder). The event was quasi-near my house, so I opted to go.
I very nearly rode my bicycle there, it being less than two hours on bike away, and looked like a fairly easy ride aside from one monster hill. If I'd sent my archery gear ahead, and found a place to charge the bike's battery, I'd have been able to do it.
GoodChatted with lots of people whom I have missed, and who seemed to have missed me.
Witnessed a hand-fasting.
Free pizza.
Shot super well.
An aside on the shooting. This will be the third time I've shot my bow in nearly two years. Going into the finals, I was tied for second overall. First was Morrigan (vying for champion), then me and Osric (both non-vying) and then Tonis (vying). Morrigan and Tonis had a shootout and Morrigan won (so she's the new Dragonblinder), and me and Osric had a shootout to see who won the prize tournament. Osric beat me by two points. I'm not disappointed because feel I shot well, and I wasn't interested in the prize - a Mongolian horse bow! My plan, if I had won, was to gift it to Her Majesty to use as she saw fit to support archery in the kingdom.
I remember shooting really well at Coronation as well, and that got me puzzling as to why. By any reasonable standard, I should be ridiculously out of practice and not shooting well at all. I think it comes down to two things:
Mentally, I don't care that much, so I'm not laying a lot of pressure on myself to do well. I've been Kingdom Champion, so I've got nothing to prove. Also, knowing I'll never be an Arcos, means not having to worry about impressing the "right" people.
Physically, I'm not in pain while shooting or afterwards. That's actually a big change from when I was shooting regularly, and I suspect I was nursing a repetitive stress injury that was preventing me from getting better. Or even being as good as I should. I guess I inadvertently gave it time to heal.
I think I'll start going to practice again, but probably not weekly. Maybe once a month or so. I don't feel the need to get any better, because I found that stressful, but I would like to stay where I am, because it's fun.
Bad Lots of people I was looking forward to seeing didn't show up.
Someone tried glad-handing me, and I hate that. And yes, I do know a glad-handing attempt when I see one.
This guy does this all the fucking time and I'm sick of it. I will train him to stop it with me, and if that means he thinks I'm an obnoxious prick, so be it. The only downside is, this guy has a reputation a little like Santa Claus in the SCA, so I'm likely to get blowback from it.
Ugly Nothing really. I did have multiple escape plans in place in case things did get ugly though.
Overall, I'd say one minute of bad to an entire day of good is a helluva great ratio and I'll take it. After court and the hand-fasting, I said my goodbyes, and left. The night still being young, I went to a BBQ and hung out until midnight.
I very nearly rode my bicycle there, it being less than two hours on bike away, and looked like a fairly easy ride aside from one monster hill. If I'd sent my archery gear ahead, and found a place to charge the bike's battery, I'd have been able to do it.
Good
An aside on the shooting. This will be the third time I've shot my bow in nearly two years. Going into the finals, I was tied for second overall. First was Morrigan (vying for champion), then me and Osric (both non-vying) and then Tonis (vying). Morrigan and Tonis had a shootout and Morrigan won (so she's the new Dragonblinder), and me and Osric had a shootout to see who won the prize tournament. Osric beat me by two points. I'm not disappointed because feel I shot well, and I wasn't interested in the prize - a Mongolian horse bow! My plan, if I had won, was to gift it to Her Majesty to use as she saw fit to support archery in the kingdom.
I remember shooting really well at Coronation as well, and that got me puzzling as to why. By any reasonable standard, I should be ridiculously out of practice and not shooting well at all. I think it comes down to two things:
Mentally, I don't care that much, so I'm not laying a lot of pressure on myself to do well. I've been Kingdom Champion, so I've got nothing to prove. Also, knowing I'll never be an Arcos, means not having to worry about impressing the "right" people.
Physically, I'm not in pain while shooting or afterwards. That's actually a big change from when I was shooting regularly, and I suspect I was nursing a repetitive stress injury that was preventing me from getting better. Or even being as good as I should. I guess I inadvertently gave it time to heal.
I think I'll start going to practice again, but probably not weekly. Maybe once a month or so. I don't feel the need to get any better, because I found that stressful, but I would like to stay where I am, because it's fun.
Bad
This guy does this all the fucking time and I'm sick of it. I will train him to stop it with me, and if that means he thinks I'm an obnoxious prick, so be it. The only downside is, this guy has a reputation a little like Santa Claus in the SCA, so I'm likely to get blowback from it.
Ugly
Overall, I'd say one minute of bad to an entire day of good is a helluva great ratio and I'll take it. After court and the hand-fasting, I said my goodbyes, and left. The night still being young, I went to a BBQ and hung out until midnight.
