From the Frontlines: Midhaven Champions

This weekend was the Shire of Midhaven's Champions event as well as a Sable Rose tournament (the Sable Rose is a group that is trying to bring more pageantry into SCA fighting among other things). Despite worthy competition, I was judged the winner of the Bardic championship, with a rendition of Don Quixote's introductory song from Man of La Mancha. I am now the proud bearer of a hand-made guitar that is the champion's regalia - so I need to learn to play the guitar. :-}

I also fought rapier, coming in second in the rapier championship (OK, there were only two of us), and winning Best Death in the Sable Rose rapier tournament. The Sable Rose was double round robin (everybody fights everybody else twice), with three fighters. Among other things, I died gasping out:

A touch! A touch! I do confess it.
'Tis not as wide as the heart of a Pelican*,
Nor as deep as the documentation of a Laurel**,
Nor yet as fierce as the blow from a Knight***,
But 'tis enough, 'twill serve.

I also had my inspiration come out after a different death, weep over my corpse, then come on to my killer in an attempt to get a new champion. The fighting was remarkably clean and fun. For our off-hand weapons, the Baroness chose a card with a random off-hand weapon on it... or "lady's choice" which meant we got to try to convince her what weapon she should have us use. After the first bout in each set, we swapped weapons (in one of my fights where we were both assigned open hand, we swapped gloves) with out opponent.

In addition to fighting and singing, I also watched belly dancing, equestrian competitions, and some other stuff.

I emerged from the weekend sunburned, dehydrated, exhausted, and somewhat battered.

It was awesome!!!

*A Pelican is one of three top orders in the SCA, given for service.
**A Lauren is another one of the top orders, given for period arts, crafts, research, etc. They are known for being able to document every stitch of their work.
***A Knight is the third top order, given for heavy combat skill and chivalry (both are required).

Summer cleaning

As part of changing jobs (still working for Boeing, just a different group), I have deleted over 1,000 old emails; over 80% of what I had, including various long-term stowage folders.

I am now working in the main factory building at the Everett site, in a cubicle farm which appears to have been inspired by MIT's Infinite Corridor.

One of these things...

...is not like the others.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article6514737.ece

Russia, China, India, and Brazil (?) have formed a coalition to “create the conditions for a fairer world order”. Russia still caries the mantle of the USSR in the political world, and China and India each have a billion people (literally) and rapidly growing economies. Brazil has... has... a really good soccer team? OK, they're the fifth in the world in terms of both area and population. But there's three or four European powers ahead of them economically, plus Japan, and despite the EU nations systematically butchering their cold-war militaries, I don't even want to think where they stand on the list militarily. OK, technically they have an aircraft carrier. Put it up against a USMC helicopter carrier with a normal air wing and I wouldn't give a nickle for its chances.

I'm not happy about any multi-national polity being formed with the subtext of "we've had enough of the 'Pax America'"; I also don't think we've actually had a 'Pax America' since the cold war ended. I'm more puzzled than anything else right now, though, because I really can't see how Brazil fits into the picture. If there were five other mid-sized up-and-coming nations, sure, they'd fit nicely on the list.

It has been a long time since I posted. I've been to New Mexico, I'm preparing a for a lateral transfer at work, and I don't think we're getting the whole story on A/H1N1 aka Swine Flu, aka Frankenpiggy Flu (my own suggestion).

Magnetic spoons and titanium sporks

I was at a restaurant the other day, and, as I often do at this particular establishment, was playing with the silverware. They polish/wax/whatever the tables very well, and you can, for example, spin the knives and even make the water glasses slide a little distance. I happened to notice that my knife stuck to my spoon. Since there was nothing sticky on either utensil, I concluded one of them was magnetic. A check against other silverware on the table revealed that it was the spoon that was magnetized. I was able to move the spoon around the table with other items of silverware, which easily kept my amused until our food arrived. I even demonstrated this for the waiter.

Yes, I'm easily amused sometimes.

A while back, I got an email from ThinkGeek announcing some new products, including Spock's Spork - a limited edition (1701 items) titanium spork with the USS Enterprise logo. I am too much of an original series trekkie to resist that, especially since I've felt that a titanium spork was something I'd enjoy having for a while now, just never got around to buying one.

I wonder if Spock would find a spork logical or illogical? Is the spork, perhaps, named for one of the partners in the famous lawfirm of Spock, Spilk, Spork and Rodenberry?

From the Frontlines: Boar's Hunt

OK, this past weekend I attended Boar's Hunt, a local SCA event. I did a number of things, including throwing javelins, axes, darts, and knives, fighting rapier, marshalling rapier, competing in a bardic championship, competing in a chess championship, and, for the first time, I got called up in court! I won the chess championship (2-0 plus a forfeit), and was called up by the Baron and Baroness to recieve my prize. :-)

Overall, the event was exhausting but very satisfying.