The Doom That Came to Cowtown

Morgan and I went to May Coronation this weekend. It was a long weekend camping event, but we day-tripped for just the Saturday.

Good:

Got to show off my new, Laurel-made, garb! Nice to finally scratch that itch after missing 12th Night due to Covid. Thanks Morgan!

Saw Elias and Kiera’s step-down. Also saw Skane get knighted. I don’t know Skane at all, but he’s always been civil-to-friendly to me. Good for him.

Watched the archery championship. There were some really good targets there - especially the combat blunt target, which I later examined closely to see how it worked (mostly gate latches, to keep the targets from bouncing back).

I participated in the OGGS invitational tournament. I did well enough to not feel bad about how I shot (despite not having shot in over six months), but not so well that I got called into court, which I don’t like. This is the sweet spot for me now.

Also, Morrigan did her best to make the invitational shoot an open shoot, through the simple method of inviting everyone who wanted to shoot.

Allert won the Chivalry price in the archery tournament. Nobody asked me, but if I was asked, I’d have recommended them too.

One of the heavy fighters I was cheering for ended up winning the Kingdom armoured combat championship.

Bad:

That OGGS invitational shoot should have been an open shoot. If you’re only going to run two tourney’s, and one is the championship (with only those vying, and no testers), the other should be open. We want to encourage participation, not make things cliquey.

Just before court, the weather turned windy and chilly to the point were everyone was grabbing cloaks and coats against the cold.

Entitled Dog Owner culture has gone past brewery tap rooms and random green spaces, and has entered the SCA. There was a serious number of dogs at this event, and they weren’t restricted to their camp sites (which would be fine, provided they are sufficiently restrained). Tons of people were leading their dogs around the whole event. Including one person who brought their dog into a procession and a peer meeting. Now to everyone’s credit, all the dogs were on leash, but as someone with a dog-phobia, it’s unnerving to suddenly have a dog sniffing at your feet because the owner lead their dog that close to you. I get it, you want your dog with you, but leave them at your campsite so the rest of us can enjoy ourselves.

To their credit, none of the dogs seemed bad. But when people tell me how good their dog is, in the back of my mind, I’m thinking “until they’re not”.

On the way home, Morgan and I were looking for somewhere to eat, and accidentally went to Brooks instead of Bassano. The atmosphere in Brooks was revolting, to the point where I was nearly sick to my stomach - and the last time I barfed was 1982. Seriously, it was rank. I’ve been told this is because Brooks is just meth labs sandwiched between a pig-slaughtering plant and a sour gas refinery. Also, we clipped the edge of a monsoon on the highway back to Calgary, which lead to an “entertaining” half-hour of driving out of our two hours.

Ugly:

My not being in the OGGS came up twice, leading to brief foul moods.

“That they gave it to both the fuck up and the malignant narcissist without giving it to me told me everything I needed to know about my chances.”
“Both of them were goosed against the wishes of the order.”
“Doesn’t matter. They still never recommended me. I was perpetually six months away for years.”

It pisses me off that I’m still bitter about this all these years later. I really wish I could let this shit go.

The usual suspects continue to snub me. This is irritating since I don’t deserve it, but I’m getting better at letting it slide off me.

Meh:

I don’t know the new King and Queen at all, even by reputation, so I can’t say how their reign will be.

Evening court was fine. Lots of people I don’t know getting awards.

I’ve hit an interesting equilibrium where I go to events just often enough that people are happy and surprised to see me.

Miscellany:

“Why was so-and-so one of the fighters you wanted to win?”
“He’s always been kind to me, and seems to treat everyone he meets like a fellow Player Character. Whereas such-and-such treats most people as NPCs. The other guy isn’t mean, or a jerk per se, but it’s clear there are people he considers worth it, and others who are beneath him.”
“OK, I understand that.”

Anyway, if I go to an event this summer, it might be Dragonslayer, or Quad war if I’m really ambitious. But that will be a last minute decision.

I had grand aspirations to go to Quad War this year, and some half-assed actual plans to make it happen. tl;dr: I didn't.

Despite having gotten rid of most of my camping gear, I still have enough that I could pull off the minimum. I have a pup-tent, an air mattress, a (really quite stellar) sleeping bag, and a cooler. My food plans were going to be whatever I could get in Wainwright, plus leftovers of same. a friend made me some hearty bread, which along with peanut butter, would have been a decent breakfast.

There was going to be plenty of archery to attend, and a few friends were going, so I could socialize with them.

In the lead up this week, my anxiety was flaring up. And I more or less decided that now I had to go because I don't want to be a slave to my anxiety. I've got way too many friends who were simply broken by the lock down, and now just stay home all of the time. I don't want that to be my fate.

Anyway, the lists were made, and I was going to pack the car Thursday, and hop in first thing Friday. But Thursday afternoon I was going over the pros and cons of going. It was a lot of effort without much benefit. But it really came down to two things:

1) I don't have anyone to go with. The camping events I've gone to before where I've had someone to share the event with - the chores and the fun both - have been the best. Going alone simply underlines that I am alone. The editor in the back of my head would constantly be reminding me of that everytime I walk away from a conversation where I feel I've worn out my welcome, or every fire I avoid because I don't want to impose on anyone's hospitality. What kind of person would I be if I knowingly force someone to deal me? And this is a thing I worry about with people who have been my bffs forever.

I know that there are plenty of people in Montengarde and beyond that would be happy to see me, talk to me, briefly. But do I want short gossips and drive-by huggings? I mean, that's better than not having those things, but are they worth two 6-hour drives and two nights without my creature comforts?

2) I don't really feel like I belong in the SCA anymore. I mean, I enjoy garbing up and saying milord/milady as much as the next history-adjacent nerd, but under it all is an actual community, and for a brief shining moment around 2008-2010, I felt like I belonged to that community. After that was a long slow draw where things just got to be more of a chore with no reward. And once I stepped away from volunteering, the SCA stepped away from me. Hell, evidence suggests that the SCA stepped away from me even earlier, and I was just slow to realize the breakup.

Being reminded of that is not fun at all either.

On the other hand, what was I going to do at this event that would have been fun? Shooting. I haven't strung my bow in years, so shaking off those cobwebs and throwing some arrows downrange sounds like fun. The parties at Quad War are a lot of fun too, drinking and camping are a great combination. Catching up with folks I haven't seen in years (even with the caveats above) is fun.

Finally, there's the fact that I've put on a ton of weight over the last three years, and I'm worried that none of my garb fits anymore. Doing that triage was likely to be triggering.

I've long maintained that what I'd really like to do is get a moderate number of ex-SCAdians together and just go camping. I'm not the only person tho think about this, but it never happens - too much competing life bullshit. It's a pity, because I would fucking love to just hang out with friends late into the night at a campfire. I just don't want to drive six hours to do so.

Anyway, I know what my criteria is for future events: It has to either be day-trip distance away - so a Montengarde event that's not too far from the city. Or something that a close friend wants to attend with me. As the Venn diagram of BFFs and SCAdians has diverged into two distinct circles in the last two years, that pretty much means the former, like I did with this year's Montengarde 12th Night.

Or maybe the balance of avoiding-boredom vs potential-triggers will come down on the other side of the scale next year.

--- edit --- And then, after posting, it dawned on me. I'll travel that far for a genuine sense of community - either going where I'm welcomed, or going to share with someone welcoming. But I wouldn't go to that effort for a repeating event that is only providing light entertainment.

I am emotionally exhausted, and I didn't even do anything. Certainly, there are many people who busted their asses who deserve to be exhausted. Still, "deserves got nothing to do with it".

I mostly enjoyed myself though. The only problem was the normal one of the last few years: The number of people who clearly be happy to never see me again, and the people who are utterly indifferent to me, outnumber the people who are glad to see me. That's daunting. I'm finding that there is simply no longer a JamesQ-shaped hole in the SCA. I could probably make one if I wanted to, with a lot of effort. I just don't think that the effort is worth it. The people who enjoy my company are my friends in or out of the SCA, and the people who snub me are not the sort of people I feel like trying to impress. There are people I like who only socialize through the Society though. I miss them.

This sounds like I'm damning the event. I'm not. It was very well run, everything appeared to run smoothly, the feast was yum, and I'm happy to have seen my friends step up or step down (as the case may be). The old Baron and Baroness did a great job, and I'm sure the new B&B will as well. They're all competent people who care deeply about doing a good job. Good luck to them.

I'm not precisely done (as I've said before), but I really need a good reason to go, rather than a good reason not to. I might go to Quad War, simply because I'd like to spend a weekend camping/drinking/shooting because that sounds fun. I'd probably avoid court though (I've determined that certain aspects of court are triggering). I'd need enough spoons to maintain an encampment though, or access to a cheap camper. Unlikely, but not super-unlikely.

So yeah, that's the current state of the SCA for me personally. tl;dr - good event, but took too many emotional spoons to do on a regular basis.

So there's two guys I know in the SCA. I don't like them. One is a self-aggrandizing libertarian social climber. The other is just a loud, callous jerk.

Fine. Not everyone needs to get along. I can just avoid them. Neither has really done anything to me personally, but they're not the sort of people I enjoy hanging around with; nor am I the sort to turn a blind eye when people are mistreated, even if I'm not the target of that mistreatment.

I've heard through the rumour mill that a lot of people have complained about them. And since nothing about their behaviour has changed, the assumption is that leadership won't do anything about them. This got me to thinking as to why. I think it boils down to there being no rule against people being jerks. If they're not breaking rules, and they're not bullying anyone, there's nothing that the leadership can do. Oh, I'm sure they've been spoken to, but both are firmly in the if-it-ain't-illegal-it's-OK camp. They're also both firmly in the fuck-your-feelings camp, so appealing to their empathy is a non-starter.

Aside, when discussing this topic with folks, I did mention that "I haven't seen him actually do anything wrong, just borish", which got two responses:

"You mean aside from blatant misogyny?"*
"There is a type of person who will deliberately push negative behaviour to just short of being called on it. I think it's pretty clear he's one of them."

I do know that it's basically stripped the fun out of archery for me. Oh, I still like shooting, but I've more-or-less decided that a 45 Km round trip to the range is not worth it if I'm going to also be hanging out with toxic people. And from what I've heard, most of the people I liked at practice have come to the same conclusion. That really sucks since Montengarde's archery community used to be the envy of the Kingdom.

People have quit archery. They've also flat-out quit the Society. And I'm talking people who were involved enough to become officers and champions. I've also heard rumours of their behaviour (again, no specific thing, just general, sustained boorishness) risking our relationship with local businesses.

I'm not sure there's a solution. As the victim of ostracization, I'm reluctant to suggest it, lest it get used on me. It probably wouldn't happen anyway, as they're both very good at being friends with those who have power and social capital. In general, they're only jerks to people who can't really hit back. And that makes it somehow worse - a person who's an asshole indiscriminately is just an asshole, possibly one who doesn't know any better. A person who can pick and choose their targets that consistently suggests that they know what they're doing is wrong, but only view right-and-wrong as a hinderance.

Anyway, they're not the only reason I left, but they were a factor.

*I haven't observed this personally, but a lot of misogynists hide that aspect of themselves from men that they know wouldn't approve. And it's been a long time since I've spent time with either of them.

SCA coronation is this weekend. I'm thinking about going. I'm also thinking about not going, and therein is the dilemma.

The event is sufficiently far from Calgary that if I go, I'm committed to going for the whole weekend. I could potentially bail on Saturday, but it would realistically need to be before 5pm for me to make it home before midnight. Even then, I'm reluctant to do a six hour drive that late in the day - it seems like a recipe for dying in my sleep like Grandpa.

What's driving this is loneliness. with the exception of the occasional outing with close friends, the last few weekends have been about me finding distractions from being alone. While I'm largely tolerated or ignored in the SCA, there are a few people who enjoy my company and I could hang out with them. Plus, I could do some shooting, and basically be a spectator at the other activities. It would just be for the day since I'd get in late on Friday and leave early on Sunday. That's a short enough time I could just buy a pizza and throw it into a cooler and have my meals dealt with. A couple bottles of beer and a book and I could just treat it as mundane camping.

The downside is that anxiety could screw me. I don't get as many depressive incidents as I used to, but the one a few years ago in London was bad enough that it still haunts me. It was especially bad because I felt trapped. Having an escape plan for something potentially triggering is one of my ways of coping, and being trapped at an event combines the negative aspects of both of those things.

Another downside is that I'll have to deal with some people and situations I'd rather not deal with. Mostly this will be "where have you been" questions with varying degrees of sincerity. Oh, and archery shenanigans, but since my marshal card lapsed last summer, and the OGGS doesn't like me, it means I'm just some guy with a bow. I like shooting. Shooting without drama would be even better.

But I've had a good time at plenty of events. It would be nice to shoot with no pressure (the kingdom Archery championship is on, but I won't vie for it), and a former friend I'm still fond of is getting elevated, so that would be cool to watch. Not enjoying myself should never be the plan.

And if I don't go? Well, I'll second guess myself about that decision - that's always fun. And I'll be lonely and bored all weekend. Again. But those are known evils.

I'm leaning toward going. If I do, I'll take Friday off and pack the car that morning, leave around noon and get there around supper time. As for being trapped, I found out Wainwright has motels and a movie theatre, so I can spend Saturday night there if things turn awful.

This could answer my internal question of if I'm in the SCA anymore. And to be clear, I could end up enjoying myself and still decide I'm out. Having a good time is not the key issue here. As my friend M put it, there was no longer an M-shaped hole in the SCA for them, and so they were done. If there's no James-shaped hole, I'll be done.

I find I'm not missing SCA events. I'm certainly not missing council or tavern. Council because I found over the last few years that I kept butting heads with someone who's simply not worth the effort. Tavern because about half the time I'd go there, I'd find I wasn't actually talking to anyone, I was standing against the wall wondering what was wrong with me.

That sort of social isolation had a habit of happening to me at the big events too. Especially if they were "foreign" events, and I didn't know many people. I've never been that good at meeting people. I often joke that extroverts get to know more people in six months of the SCA than I got to know in six years.

One astonishing moment came when an SCA old-timer told me I was an old-timer, pointing out that I had been in the Society for (at the time) over 12 years. I couldn't deny his logic, so why did it still feel like I was new.

Lord knows I've got a ton of accomplishments in the SCA: Seneschal, first kingdom archery champ, only person to have the Brass of the Minotaur. I'm happy with all of those. But I know I'm never getting anything else. I no longer really serve, so I'm never going to be a Pelican. I'm not a combat archer, so I'm not going to be OGGS. I'm OK with that, because I'm not willing to go through that extra effort. And that's OK too.

None of this is really about the SCA really. I suspect any large social group would have the same problem. Lord knows there's people who've bent over backwards to include me - problem is those people are social butterflies.

"Hey, James! Come sit down!"
*brightening* "Sure."
"Oh, I just saw someone I need to talk to. I'll be right back."
*doesn't come right back*

Funny thing is, this weekend is the first event since stepping down as archery champ that I actually decided that doing nothing was better than going to the event. I haven't been to any events since stepping down, but all the others I actually had good reasons - visiting friends whom I never get to see, being on vacation, that sort of thing.

Aside: That it's an event requiring camping was another big factor. Just not up to camping this year. It's a recipe for back problems.

Related to all this is a weird thing I've noticed. Events that I don't go to? Social media suggests that those are all really good events. The sort that everyone raves about how they had an epically good time. The ones I go to never seem to have that kind of reaction. This is probably just confirmation bias on my part, but the impression is still there. I've had epically fun events, but not for a long time. I feel like I'm trying to catch lightning in a bottle, and everyone else has the knack but me.

A friend wrote:

"Sometimes we get engaged in certain activities or situations to satisfy a need, or benefit some aspect of ourselves. They become part of our routine, and may feel like they DO help out with whatever they're supposed to help out with. But then other needs arise or needs shift, or not enough spoons, and we realize that that thing we're doing is actually taking a toll."

Lots of wisdom there. For awhile, the SCA filled a need - or at least appeared to. Now, not so much. It's not that I'm having that need filled somewhere else, and I no longer need it. More that after thirteen years, I've come to the conclusion that that need probably isn't getting filled. My goal now is to attend events I want to attend, and not have it seem like a chore. It's been a chore for a long time now.

I am planning on attending some upcoming events. Baronial polling? Sure, I'll give my two cents. Hell, when it comes to my opinion, I'm happy to raise it from two cents to a whole dollar. Harvest Feast? Maybe - on the basis that I've never had a bad time at a Bitter End event. Samhain? Absolutely, if only to see a friend elevated to Laurel. After that, who knows.

And I'm going to keep shooting and supporting archery (I've agreed to run a Target Archery Marshal class next week). In fact, I may have solved my chronic injury issue tonight. That being the case, I'll be back semi-regularly.

On Wednesday I resigned as president of the MSCA. This is part of my current put-the-SCA-at-arm's-length plan. Today, I went to the bank to get my name taken off of the list of designated cheque-signers. It turns out I can't actually do this, despite it being my signature.

Here's what needs to happen: The MSCA needs to have a meeting to decide who the current cheque-signers are. Then they need to make an appointment to the bank where they bring a copy of those minutes. They'll sign a bunch of papers. I, apparently, cannot affect this process at all, despite it being my signature.

Now those hoops aren't terribly difficult, but that they exist at all tells me this: It will never happen. Never. I know this.

Bottom line is, I was the last person on council who gave a shit about the MSCA. As long as someone with authority doesn't hold their feet to the fire, and they have enough people who can still sign cheques, nothing will be done. They simply do not think it's worth lifting a finger for.

Hell, about a year ago, we were discussing getting the proper people (MSCA officers, rather than just random MSCA members) as signatories, I asked the treasurer to undergo a background check as a first step and he flatly refused. This is the lowest level of background check, where you fill out a form, give the police a couple of bucks to cover the costs, and they send you a letter saying they couldn't find anything obviously wrong. The guy refused to even consider it. I don't know if it's because he has some 18-year old's bullshit on his record that he doesn't want anyone to know about, or he's just some kind of libertarian you're-not-the-boss-of-me type (the latter seems more likely), but he simply wasn't going to do it, even though being able to interact with the bank is a job requirement for the treasurer.

Lots of other things have needed to happen for a long time, including simply getting rid of the MSCA (all SCA branch accounts need to be accessible by the SCA, and the MSCA is a separate legal entity, so we're not supposed to do it). They never get done. Oh, people will agree to do them, but that never matters. The aforementioned treasurer was especially cheerful when agreeing to do the things he never did.

Anyway, I figured there was one thing in my control, and that was getting my own name off the roster. Turns out I can't, and I'm basically stuck.

As a long-time role-playing game organizer, I have a love/hate relationship with Rules Lawyering. On one hand, it's often obstructionistic, and is more about squeezing an unearned advantage out of a situation or just proving that you're more of a know-it-all than the person running the game. In that regard, it is widely held as somewhat negative. On the other hand, sometimes a rule just needs to be lawyered.

There's been some rules lawyering going on in that giant RPG I call the SCA (someone's going to object to that. My advice is don't get sidetracked by my little gibe). And it's been in the part of the SCA that's nearest and dearest to my heart, the archery community.

Some background: Royal Rounds are a method the Society uses to compare archers from across the world. It's a largely standardized (there are regional variations, but they're small) shoot consisting of four ends:

• six arrows at 40 yards.
  
• six arrows at 30 yards.
  
• six arrows at 20 yards.
  
• a thirty-second timed end at 20 yards, where you try to get as many scoring arrows off as you can.

There's other rules too, but that's the gist of it. Your score in a royal round should is a good first-order approximation of how good an archer you are compared to other SCA archers.

Montengarde, aka Calgary, where I am, has a giant advantage in the archery community. We have what is possibly the only indoor range that can handle a royal round in North America (I say possibly because I've always treated the Calgary Archery Center's claim that they're the largest indoor range in North America along the same line as a diner claiming it has the best cup of coffee in the world. Really, who checks these things?). We certainly have the only indoor range capable of it in Avacal (Alberta and Saskatchewan). The other branches of Avacal do not have that advantage. At best they have a combination of 20-yard indoor ranges augmented with the occasional use of ad hoc outdoor ranges when the weather and private land owner permits it. Finally, most outdoor events in Avacal also have a range capable of doing Royal Rounds.

So Montengarde has a huge advantage in regards to Royal Rounds, but it's not insurmountable. People can and do become great archers outside of Montengarde. But there's no denying it's not exactly fair.

To that end, one enterprising fellow observed that the rules say nothing explicitly about having to score at longer ranges. In fact, it explicitly says you can opt not to shoot any end in a Royal Round, taking a score of zero for that end. That's where the rules lawyering comes in: He started holding official practices at a 20-yard range and only counting the two twenty-yard ends. By the rules, as written, there is nothing wrong with that. It certainly goes against the spirit of the rules, but by my reading, it's not actually against them (though more on that in a moment).

Those practices stepped on some toes and that lead to some friction in the community. Finally, the Royal Archer (the guy who acts as their Royal Majesties final word on all things archery) clarified the intent of the rule: The range must have all distances present, even if you don't opt to use them. You cannot have a Royal Round at a short range, even if you're willing to short change yourself. This of course puts people in the opposing camp into the same situation as a Rabbi arguing the Talmud against God Almighty. You can do it, but you'd better tread carefully. The Royal Archer wrote the rules, and he's stated what his intent was, but despite that, the rules don't actually spell out that intent. As I mention above, the spirit is clear, but I think the loophole exists regardless of the spirit.

So why would the enterprising fellow want to hamstring himself with a lower score? The Calgary Archery Center does not allow crossbows, the shorter range does. If you want to practice with crossbows, you have to go to this other range. This puts crossbow shooters into the same boat as regular, non-crossbow, archers who are not in Montengarde - they have severely limited opportunities to get Royal Round scores.

So what are the issues surrounding this:

It's the law, so suck it up.

People who know me, know that that argument never works. People will abide by the law, but that doesn't mean they have to like it; nor does it mean they can't advocate to have the law changed. In the end we're discussing whether this is a good law, and if not, how do we make it so.

People need to have the option of scoring all ends, even if they don't take it.

I personally don't see much of a difference between choosing to not shoot 30 and 40 at a range with same, and choosing to shoot at a range lacking a 30 and 40. People are still making a decision based on the options available to them. I would be pissed if someone said there were Royal Rounds at a range, and the first indication I couldn't shoot 30 and 40 was when I arrived. To that end, I'd simply say make that point known when advertising the practice.

These are archery practices, not Royal Round practices - they're not synonymous. That some people have way more opportunity than others doesn't matter because that's not what the practice is for.

Point taken, but consider this: There is a huge amount of peer pressure to do Royal Rounds. I've been guilty of this myself, pushing everyone to do them (I also push them not to, if I think they're becoming hyper-focused to the point of not enjoying archery anymore - this is supposed to be fun after all). Last season, there were sufficiently few official Royal Round averages that we thought there was a problem that needed addressing, and we pushed harder. We shouldn't push people, then slap their hand.

Also consider this: Royal Rounds aren't just a way of comparing ourselves to each other - we've also made it a competition. People get medallions for placing in the top ten. High enough scores are recognized in Court by the King and Queen. Shouldn't competitions be as fair as we can make them?

A mechanism for doing royal rounds exists. If people want to do them, they can make the effort, even if it's more difficult for some of them.

I am mindful that's it's hard to argue for making things easier, when the target audience includes a lot of people who busted their asses to get where they are. Still, I'm going to do that: That people can shoot rounds at a handful of outdoor events, or that they can drive 300 Km from Borealis to Montengarde, shouldn't be an argument for the status quo. We have a solution that allows these people to participate, albeit not ideally, with a major facet of SCA archery. Ultimately, enduring a 300Km car ride really has nothing to do with how good a shot you are.

Miscellaneous Considerations

It occurred to me while writing this that the Kingdom might want to restrict this for it's own reasons rather than for the individual archers. Namely, a small amount of high-scoring archers will produce a higher Kingdom average, than a large amount of low-scoring archers. So if Kingdoms are comparing their scores, they might want to artificially restrict low-scoring archers. I have no idea if Kingdoms actually do that, and if they do, it's trivially fixed by only comparing the top X shooters.

Another pro-restrictive argument (and to my mind, the only really compelling one) is if the Society-wide rules already restrict this. If they do, then we can still make the argument, but the kingdom level is not the place to do it - we'd need to get all the Kingdoms involved.

So I had a look. The Society doesn't seem to address this (i.e. the loophole exists almost everywhere). Of the kingdoms, only Ealdomere specifies that the range have all three distances for the Royal Round to qualify. While I disagree with the rule, I will give them that it is clear and obvious.

Summary

I was asked my opinion about this when it came up over the last few months, by several people. My opinion is simple: If people want to shoot ham-strung royal rounds at a short range, let them. It's not ideal, but I'd rather more people participated in an uneven way, then didn't participate at all. I want more people to come to archery. I want fewer non-Montengarde archers driven away (ideally none).

Late Addition

So while I was writing this, they closed the loophole, and now you have to shoot at all three distances for it to be considered. You can't even opt to take a zero now (though I suppose you could just hit the 20-yard butt and say you missed by a lot if you really wanted to, but there still needs to be 30 and 40 yard targets for you to miss. Kinda wish I'd seen that before researching/writing all this. Sigh.

I think the King and Queen have to sign off on this, but it would surprise me if they didn't.

One of my duties as Champing of Arrows is running archery tournaments at Kingdom-level events. That means I have to come up with targets for them. For this event I thought of this playing card theme for the timed end:



And then I went completely overboard on a playing card theme. This was both good and bad. Good in the sense that I pushed my boundaries somewhat in pursuit of really good targets. Bad in that one of the targets was rather expensive.

What do I mean by pushing my boundaries? I'm not someone who's good at art - I can kinda do things if it involves straight lines, but things I make are never pretty. I recognize that I lack talent (and will often lampshade that when people ask me to do things. Instead, when I make art that's not straight lines I'll do things like compose on a computer first and then trace, or work from a static model of some kind, and pencil it over and over again until such time as it's at some intersection of recognizable and something-I-can-do. So much of what I want to make I see in my minds eye, perfectly done, and my hands simply cannot do it. I want to art, but it's supremely frustrating so I give up.

If I was just doing these targets for the hell of it, I'd have given up. Since I had to do the shoot, I forced myself to keep working on it until I actually got something I wanted. Surprisingly, I'm happy with the results - a rare occurrence when I'm trying to art.

Aside: I have more ways of being creative than "traditional" arts (drawing/painting/sculpture) that are less personally frustrating. Mostly, I write. I'm practiced enough at it that, when I'm in the zone, the words just leap from my fingers to the screen. Why can't I draw like that?

Anyway, I came up with some targets, made them on the computer, then went to Michael's for art supplies. Damn near paid full price for everything, but had the following exchange while waiting on a price check:

"I see you've got a stack of coupons here - I don't suppose I could snag one for this order?"
"No, because those are for next week. But if you have a cell phone, I can look up this week's coupons."

In the end I got everything for about a third off. Score. Though I suspect she wasn't going to volunteer that information if I hadn't been chatty.

Next I took everything to work (it was late Saturday night, so no one was there). Went into the room we use for demoing our software for clients that's set up to project everything on the wall. Then I proceeded to trace the pictures. Next day I inked them in, which took several hours while I watched the last few episodes of my cheesy 70's cop drama.

( On to the targets, plus the gorgeous target I *didn't* make... )

And now I have to start thinking about my championship tournament at June Crown (assuming Kingdom law doesn't change in the meantime, in which case it will be at August Coronation)

I went to the reboot of A/T War this weekend. Overall, it was good.

Good

Got lots of shooting in, most of it acceptable.

Avacal won all of the archery war points. Also, the war overall (It's true - together, we conquer). I'm happy to have had a small hand in that.

Site is nice, but could be more compact, to reduce the huge amount of hiking.

Site is close to Nakusp, which makes hoteling wonderfully viable. My hotel was decent, albeit nothing special.

The nights were a wonderfully comfortable temperature, not requiring clocks or heavy underwear. Also, the site was well-lit, due to a beautiful full (blue) moon and cloudless nights.

My first court ever from the other side of the thrones. Interesting perspective. I kind of like it back there, even if it does mean I'll be messing up countless photographs for the time being. Sorry folks.

On that subject, Their Majesties, Albrecht and Nasheeta, do good court.

Bad

SCA Exclusivity again. I think if I didn't bake cookies, or be a prominent archery, no one would have anything to do with me. Still, I'm getting used to it, so it's not really triggery anymore - more sort of a sign or acceptance for something I can't change.

The flip side to it being so warm at night, it was stinking hot all day, every day. I think if I were stuck on site, I'd have died of heat exhaustion (I caught the edge of it on Sunday afternoon and went and slept it off in my hotel room before court).

I was supposed to get this event comped (as do all the Avacal champions), but no one told Gate. Rather than be a dick to the people at gate, I just gave them my $20.

Ugly

The potential for ugly was high, but I managed to avoid it - mostly due to knowing where ugly scenarios lay and stepping around them whenever I could.

Some random highlights and musings

An old timer mentioned that 12 years made one an old timer. Apparently, I'm an old timer in the SCA. I call bullshit. If I was an old timer, wouldn't I finally feel like I belonged?

The Champion's shoot was really good. It was ten on ten, single elimination, with the loser being knocked out and the winner (or tied pair) going back into their side's line up - First team to lose all ten of their archers loses. The Tir Righ team was really really good, and gave us a run for our money. I myself was knocked out by a 12-year old girl. A 12-year old girl practicing for the junior Olympics! Happy to have gone head to head with her, and if I had to be beat, I'm happy it was her.

The populous shoot was fantastic - Avacal beat Tir Righ in absolute numbers. I'm not sure we'll be able to pull that off again next year. Still, I found it rather easy to convince my fellow Avacalians to march up the hill to the range. Given the heat and distance, that's amazing.

I had originally wanted to avoid this event owing to shitty A/T Wars in the past (buffalo poop - you're soaking in it), and the six hour drive, and I'm really getting tired of camping. However, I had to go to this event (it's in Kingdom Law that I attend), and so I was grousing about it. Thinking on it, the thing I was really avoiding was the camping, not the event itself. And refining that further, I think what I hate about camping is the setting up/tearing down aspect of camping. If I could be one of the rich assholes who goes to Burning Man and just pays ten grand to have a ready made glamp set up, I'd do it. I'm neither rich, nor that flavour of asshole though.

Still, it was nice having an option to hotel, and I think I got the second last hotel room in Nakusp (In addition to us, there were three weddings and a baseball tournament going on - and of course, it was the August long weekend). If I go back next year (and I'm considering it), I'll probably hotel again, but get a nicer/closer room.

That just leaves the drive. It would be so nice to not be lonely on a trip that long.

On Sunday night, I sat and watched the full moon go from a sliver to fully clearing a mountain, in about five minutes. You could actually see it moving! It's a wonder I didn't get dizzy, from the Earth spinning so fast.