Archive for the ‘SCA’ Category
This Whole Pennsic Thing.
It’s pretty strange to be here again. Last year we skipped it, too little time, not enough money we said. This year we decided that it could be a cheap vacation. Seems a lot of people made that decision, this place seems packed this year.
Our camp more than filled up today. It’s wall to wall. We had about a dozen people show up, most of them have small popup type tents and most of them seem very young. It’s some household from Indiana.
Before
After
I can’t help but wonder why we go through all of this. Mostly I suppose it’s to create a bit of contrast. A reset switch, an opportunity to get away for a while and do something completely different.
That’s got to be it! What else could it be?
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So some more Pennsic.
Ok, so I’m a geek. I dress up in this faux roman garb, sit around in a tent and write blog posts on my laptop.
I dug out my armor today, did some adjustments and wandered up to the field to get inspected. Pennsic inspections are supposed to be this big freaking deal but I’ve never had much trouble with it. They wanted a picture ID this year, and that forced me to walk back to camp (all of five min away.) Afterward I did pickups for a while, until it started raining hard. There has been a succession of fronts coming through, today was hot and dry until late afternoon.
Tomorrow is supposed to be wet again. Deb and I might go into town one last time, I’ve got a case of gluten free beer on order and we need to do laundry.
Those camp bunnies are doing fine, all but one are eating regularly and they are starting to crop grass. They plan to release them on the final day of the war, hopefully they will be old enough to make it on their own.
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So Pennsic
Well, once again we loaded up the family jalopy and headed out to the Pennsic War. Deb, E’ and I got on the road at about 3:00PM on Sunday, July 26th 2009. After about 23 hours of driving and several Starbucks’ stops we arrived at Cooper’s Lake PA which is located in the rolling hills of Butler County.
(Monday)
We got unpacked and set up by around 4PM, then we went into town for a shopping run.
(Tuesday)
Some of my campmates found some baby rabbits. E’ is enchanted and (of course) wants to bring one home.
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Back from Pennsic.
We got back last night, dropping E off at the grandparents. The drive went very well and we found all the cats, one turtle and our house still OK.Pennsic itself was fine other than the weather. It rained nearly every day, that combined with beastly heat and high humidity made the war into a sticky mess.
Still, the fighting was good, we saw many old friends that we don’t get to see otherwise. We sampled the most excellent Cooper’s lake chocolate milk (you have to try this stuff to believe it.) We sat around the fire, sang absurd songs and watched the stars come out on the one or two clear nights. We enjoyed good company, saw some very good performances (one group put on The Lion in Winter, not a period play to be sure but one of my favorites.) We watched our son grow up just a little more. What more could we have asked for?
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Pennsic 2007
Pennsic Log 2007
Sunday
I seem to have forgotten something important, most years I have a paper journal but this time I completely forgot to bring one! This means I will have to keep a diary on line.
It’s Sunday, we have been here since Friday afternoon. The trip up was uneventful, Deb and I did the trip straight through. We pulled the our small trailer which had been rebuilt almost from the ground up after my last Gulf Wars trip. The thing preformed like a champ. Deb used the extra room in the truck for a bed, something we have not done in a long time.
We camped with Cozenentie like last year. It’s mostly a bunch of Midreailmers, a gaggle of squires and some aging knights. The current Midreailm crown prince is here too.
We also have the SCA board chairman here in camp. He has an enormous pavilion tent with a couple of marble top bars. He’s doing a drinking game called wheel of misfortune. Spin the wheel, get a silly drink like MSD (mystery science drink) 3000, repeat!)
He must have rented a 24 foot truck to transport it all.
I got inspected on Sunday, minor gig on one of my spears. It seems th durn grew an extra two inches since last time, I did pickups for a while until it started raining. It rained on and off all afternoon, becoming heavier.
Monday;
Rained off and on all morning, becoming very heavy at times. One of the tents in camp fell over, it was the children’s tent of one of the Cozenentie people, they have four kids, a teen age girl, a girl about nine or ten and two boys, one about five and onto about eight.
The tent has a period pavilion but it had been set up using cheap plastic stakes. The parents plan to just put it up again! Even though the forecast calls from more rain this week. (Thankfully they found or borrowed some metal stakes.)
They are a rather young couple, very nice but I think their kids are a bit on the wild-side. They beg and beg for E’s toys and won’t take no for an answer. I’ve had to sit each of them down and tell them that asking the same questions over and over again is just irritating and will never get them hem what they want. E’s been kind of funny because he’s said stuff like “yah, they really won’t give you stuff is you keep bugging them.” I also have to stop them from just walking into our tent and just taking what they want, especially the little one.
After the rain is over it gets hot and muggy. Very strange for this part of the country.
Tuesday;
We did the big wall battle, we were supposed to rig a bunch of flags on a hay bale structure with restricted entrances. This got called by rain about half way through. It was very frustrating, I was placed behind part of the wall and had to work by spear around it. I got a few kills but mostly wore myself out. Eventually someone on the othrer side thought I was doing too well and managed to grab my spear tip and yanked it across one of the marshals (who was wearing armor) breaking the shaft.
We had something of a deluge this afternoon. It was about as bad as I’ve ever seen. We are OK but a bunch of camps got washed out. `
Thursday;
Its been raining off and on this entire war. Many people have packed up and left, I don’t blame them. It’s been pretty wet although last night’s Midnight Madness was dry and fun despite some people who decided to play Boccie right through the middle of it.
We did the Woods Battle today, It was lots of fun as per usual, then a couple of large fronts past through dumping another inch or so of rain. We are riding it out just fine (Deb’s snoozing on the bed right now, E’s watching a large bonfire being built.)
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The Clash
Oh no! It’s more civil unrest.
The cops are pulling out all the heavy stuff!
They have tear gas and the dogs.
The forward skirmish line nervously await…..
What the hell? Who are these guys?
It’s the SCA!
This was relayed though a friend, we have all heard rumors, but I have never seen photographic evidence, until now. It’s the Society for Creative Anachronism vs the Royal Canadian Mounted Police – in a friendly – brotherly sort of way!
For training you understand!
Some photos are archived on the Way Back Machine.
One difficulty I can see is we are trained to strike our opponents in the head, our helmets are made of steel and regulated to a minimum weight. Those fiberglass helmets (presuming they are fiberglass) could not stand the kind of pounding we give each other.
Hey! I want to do this in my home town!
For those of you who’ve never heard of it. SCA heavy fighting is a full-contact marshal art sport which closely resembles broadsword fighting. Participants are armored and use rattan sticks which are balanced to resemble the real thing. Blows are called on the receiving end (using the honor system) which allows single to multi combatant “wars”, sometimes numbering into the thousands. This can be thought of as American form Kendo without the strict fencing-like rule system. Combat is in the round and there are hundreds of different weapon types and styles. This martial art has been around in one sort or another since the mid 1960s.
You can get information on the local (Pinellas county Florida US) chapter of the Society for Creative Anachronism by emailing or commenting here. Or you can go to the Barony of Marcaster web page, We have regular practices most every Saturday at Largo Central Park, 101 Central Park Drive Largo, FL 33771, near shelter #8. Please check the calendar (on the Marcaster page) for date/time changes.
Here’s a good overview of SCA fighting forms.
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We had 100 million things going on this weekend, – What else is new?
The boyz are settling in. We know that A’ and R’ will be with us to the end of the week, maybe longer. E’ and A’ are attending skate-camp this week, R’ is learning his reeling and writhing or whatever Mom deems necessary.
We had a prize tourney on Saturday, I tied for second for blowing one lousy fight. I tend to choke during tourneys, with certain people. Need to work on that. Surprisingly A’ watched nearly the entire thing, E’ is perennially not interested although he likes to go to events, He seems to think SCA heavy fighting is a little too rowdy. What was that line from the Frank Boorman film Excalibur? “It looks far worse than it feels!”
Saturday night I set up a multi-node Starcraft network. We had up to four users on at one time. A’ seems to like it, R’ is too young and E’ not to sure yet. I like the game and long ago found the computer AI too boring, real people on the Internet turn out to be 14 year- olds who do nothing but play this stupid game (and knock my block off) so I pretty much stopped playing. Deb was bemused by the whole thing but it does give the boyz something to do that does not involve running amuck in the house or sitting in front of the TV.
We’ve had more in-law drama, without going into too much detail Deb’s brother and mom are playing all kinds of head-games with her. I’m pretty sick of it and about to tell both of them to sog-off and find someone else to bother. We have many things going on here (like our own lives) and don’t need a bunch of needy people being needy.
I’ve been embarked on operation Destroy all Grass in my front yard, despite the beastly heat. I’m weed-clothing over the entire front island and we will be putting in drought- tolerant plants and probably lots of mulch and gravel. I’m using soaker-hose and keeping the above ground irrigation to a minimum. it’s hard work and to my surprise, I’,m enjoying it!
Deb had a sewing party on Sunday (about a half-dozen people and their sewing machines.) This was while I was working on the yard, not hiding out and playing Starcraft with the Boyz…. no really!
Oh yes, I drove by our old house in Saint Petersburg last week. The folks who were renting it moved out months ago and it;s looking pretty bad.
We have so many memories of the old place, good and bad…, but only ONE BATHROOM! How did we manage?
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The Heat, the Boyz and Immolation-station.
Another crazy week, we have experienced further drama-storms coming from some of Deb’s relatives. Her brother is very ill and her mom, his SO and a few other people are making sure that everyone feels as lousy as possible.
That aside, we did a small SCA event last weekend, only around 150 people. I was playing event steward and things went smoothly. This was our annual “thing” or Res event. It’s a collegium, each year we select a new theme. This do year it was military and fighting stuff and the event was called Res Millitaria, the “military thing.” Next year I think we may do “the cooking thing.”
We had a bunch of people over at the house on Sunday. E’ and Deb had Monday free more or less. I stayed home on Tuesday to help out with the bother and law brouhaha although thankfully nothing materialized. Deb ended up picking up the nephews from Plant City while I had a client.
I’ve been mostly working on the front yard in what I call “operation no-grass.” With the new driveway extension we have decided to work drought tolerant plants into the front planter area with much and gravel making up the balance. It’s been very hot and I have gotten a pretty bad sunburn working on this stuff.
Wednesday was Fourth of July, we had a small block party amid sporadic rain, the boyz and our neighborhood boy paloosa had fun running amuck, Then we went the H’s house for immolation-station.
Last year Ms H’s brother bought a truckload of fireworks, too much for mere mortals to shoot off in only four hours or so. He kept them and we shot a bunch off this year.
Their son C’ gave his best goober impression by shooting roman candles off in his hand. I fired of brace of bottle rockets and some of those plastic spinner things. I recommend that one follow the directions in the spinners, “lay firework on flat surface, light and get away to the next county. I think this is all E’s fault, I would never bother with this stuff by myself! We carted the boyz back to the humble-hut, tuckered out and fire-sated.
Otherwise it is just freaking hot outside. The kind of still – windless heat that gives Florida a bad name. It’s miserable out there today, gray and moist.
Bleack!
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Once more unto the breach,…. dear friends!
We just got back from our yearly sojourn to the Pennsic Wars. I think this is number 18–consecutive for myself anyway. Deb’s missed at least one and neither of us have gone up for the two full weeks in years. This year I went up several days early, set up the tent and relaxed for a couple of days. Deb and E flew up late Tuesday night.
The weather was splendid this year. It rained exactly one night, hard but not for very long. The poor lady next door to me got flooded, she really didn’t seem to understand what was going on or where she was. She had a couple of kids in tow, a young lady of 14 and a six year old boy who whined and carried on for the entire war.
Those were the low points and there were few this year. The fighting was very good I don’t even know who won, (nor do I particularly care.) We were fighting with the Middle Kingdom, it seemed we were outnumbered most of the time (which gave me more targets, I can’t complain.)
E loved Pennsic. Christ! How could someone his age not love it? He bought one of those flimsy plastic swords and swaggered around with it like D’Artagnan. It was pretty cute. I took him up to youth combat one day and he forgot all bout his play sword, sat down and watched. Very intently. E’s got the attention span of,… well a little kid who’s watched way too much television. But, he was fascinated with kids his age doing what I do, not quite as violently though. The first Division (7-9 year olds) do touch kills with padded weapons. I watched the 17-18 year olds. Some of those kids were pretty good
and they don’t do touch kills.
Otherwise, we got mooned by the Pennsic Independent staff. (hah! After all we’ve done for them?) We ran into a bunch of friends that we only see here. One night, someone tossed a bunch of those small glow-sticks in the field behind Runestone Field. E and a bunch of kids had a wonderful time flinging them into the air, it was a very strange sight, just lights bobbing and weaving in the darkness, every now and then someone would count off and the kids flung all the sticks into the air. Instant fireworks!
All three of us drove back, I think this was E’s first road trip and he took to it like an otter takes to water. Deb made him finish his week’s homework (his low point of the week,) but the balance of the time was spent watching movies on our tiny DVD player. I did most of the driving and we made it back in a decent 23 hours drive time. Getting back early enough Sunday to unload, unpack and relax a little.
It was a good trip as Pennsic trips go. No drama to speak of, all the equipment worked. We didn’t get sick or too cold or wet. I didn’t get hurt from the fighting. It was an adventure which I suppose why we do it.
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April Fools
Spring Coronation this weekend, this is an SCA event where we invest our six month regional monarch. Last court was around 9:30 Am or so, the outgoing crown had a number of house-keeping things, the very last of which was to announce impending Baronial status for the Shire of Marcaster. (Now Incipient Barony of Marcaster.)
Art and Deb were named impending Baron and Baroness, I was kind of surprised but apparently the Crown took the popular polling and not another couple. Deb and I are going to have a bunch of work to do in the next six months. We need to upgrade our garb, both the Roman stuff and probably a batch of 14th Century gear, we are thinking of doing Roman in the summer and more high medieval in the winter. I even have most of an armor set for the period, just have to get a nice helmet and build a Cuirass.
Directly after the announcement the new King and Queen came into court. They proceeded to dispose the King and Queen in a rather graphic manner, reminded me of a ren-fest I did just after graduating high school. We were asked to do blood packs and the whole nine yards.
After the butchering during court this weekend and several quarts of fake blood we were asked to swear fealty over the “bodies†of the outgoing crown after they were unceremoniously dumped onto the floor.
They had to hose off the concrete afterwards (that karo syrup can be messy!) It was all good early Celtic fun I guess. I likened this to the Irish invasion of Trimaris, what’s funnier is all the swag and t-shits (!) Winning our hearts and minds now?
I hope these folks do well. They did some of this kind of stuff during their last reign, I remember an amusing crown list where they had someone dress up as the Black Knight and rino the other participants. This time they seem to have pulled out a bunch of stops. I’m wondering what else they are will come up with!
There was lots of fighting Saturday but I was feeling a bit out of sorts and today I know why. I caught the local crud and my head feels like it’s five feet across. I’m probably going to take Tuesday and just be sick. Oh yes, summer returned with the time change last weekend, it was hot and muggy most of the weekend and probably for the rest of the week as well.
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