12/12/12

Happy 12 day, everyone!

Enjoy it, because odds are none of us will live to see the next triple date (January 1st, 2101).

In other news, it is looking increasingly likely that SPEEA will strike. February 1st (2013) is being tossed around as a date.

I feel about the potential strike much the same way I feel about the fiscal cliff; it would be better if it didn't happen, but the people responsible (Boeing in the case of the strike, and the voters - especially those in Ohio, Florida, etc. - in the case of the fiscal cliff) have no one to blame but themselves if it does.

I already tried to avert one, and I'm making my support of SPEEA very visible at work as the best way I have to avoid the other.

We'll see... or maybe the Mayans actually were prophets and not the first cobol programmers and we won't see.

A few days ago the news reported that some government agency assured the public that the world will not end this december or anytime soon. NPR noted that while it was a bold claim it would be hard to hold them accountable if they were wrong.

Personally I don't believe the world will end on 12/21 or any nearby date, don't believe we'll go over the fiscal cliff, and don't believe we'll strike.

On the plus side, I can't be wrong about all three of those!

Gun Control in a Soundbite

“Anti-gun lawmaker caught trying to board airplane with gun.”

Illinois state senator Donne Trotter of Chicago, spent the night in jail after trying to go through a TSA checkpoint at O’Hare with a pistol in his bag. Yes, he admits owning the pistol and claims he forgot it was there. He has been an advocate for gun control and has opposed granting concealed carry permits since he joined the senate in 1989.

This, to me, shows a person who wants to prevent other people from having guns but also wants to have them himself – the classic ‘the rules don’t apply to me’ mindset. While it gets very little press attention, this is a very common attitude in the anti-gun community.

One of my favorite examples of this comes from fiction – the highly anti-gun TV show “The West Wing” featured an almost entirely anti-gun cast of characters, but the supposedly anti-gun president at one point commented that he didn’t want the Secret Service agents defending his daughter to be discrete about the fact that they were carrying firearms. ‘I’m carrying a fully loaded gun and the safety’s off’. Its fine for MY daughter to have people protecting her with firearms but not someone else’s daughter. Sure, its fiction, and The West Wing was infamous for getting their technical details wrong. Still, the show was highly accurate in presenting the attitudes and the level of information that the characters would have had they been real.

I’ll admit, there are things I feel safe and justified in doing that I do not feel are safe or justified for everyone. I do not, however, feel that there should be laws prohibiting them from doing such things. If there are such laws then they apply to me too and if I break them I deserve to be punished. In such cases I would prefer that any laws required training or a demonstration of competence (or both, of course) but protect the right of individuals who pass such tests to do the thing in question.

OK, that was a bunch of generalities. Let’s take an example. I think I’m a sufficiently skilled and conscientious driver that I should be permitted to operate a motor vehicle. I feel that quite a lot of people on the road should not be. I’d be very happy if in order to get a driver’s license you had to pass a period skills check that actually prevented a notable percentage of the adult population from driving. Said law would, of course, have to allow means by which someone could get training and experience in advance of the test (especially for first-time applicants). It would cost money to do this testing – so get part of it by increasing the license fee, and a bunch of it by increasing the gas tax or new car tax or something.

On the flip side, such a law would, in my opinion, be unconstitutional if applied to firearms – that pesky 2nd Amendment. Nevertheless I’d back a constitutional amendment that reasserted the individual’s right to keep and bear arms if it included a training/proficiency requirement. But I’d ONLY back a constitutional amendment to that effect – no lesser law could override the 2nd.

The law is the law, and Sen. Trotter would have done well to remember it.

This is what you voted for

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Obamacare is a fundamentally bad plan and unconstitutional to boot.

But this post is just about Point A.

Walmart will be cutting health care coverage for a large number of its workers, and reducing the hours of many so that it can cut their benefits too.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/01/walmart-health-care-policy-medicaid-obamacare_n_2220152.html

This is fully legal under Obamacare, and the taxpayers will be picking up the tab.

In other words thanks to the wonder of Obamacare Walmart will save money and its workers will get fewer hours and less benefits. But you should remember that our glorious leader is for the poor and middle class people of this country, not the rich. That’s why his signature legislation will benefit the millionaires who run Walmart while imposing another financial burden on the middle class taxpayers and making life harder for the poor.

I’m not defending what Walmart is doing, but I’m sure they’ll be just the first of many companies to do this. I get bitten by this two ways – the federal government is going to need to raise more money to pay for the increased number of people getting some healthcare on the government’s dime, and the insurance companies are going to up prices since the government dime doesn’t go very far in healthcare. If you think Medicare is a great plan I urge you to consult with someone familiar with the billing side of it – providers like, say, paramedics often have to have that familiarity since if we don’t do our documentation “right” (i.e. to arcane government standards) Medicare won’t pay our employer.

From the Frontlines: Good Yule

I went to Good Yule this year with the expectation that I would be doing a lot of entertaining – both before and during the feast.

As it happened I only performed once (Save me a Seat in Valhalla), but I had fun anyway.

With my unexpected free time I entered the games championship. I won twice and lost twice in Byzantine Chess (often known as round chess or circular chess), and concluded that bishops in Byzantine Chess are weak and pitiful. I also taught a young girl how to play. I was a finalist in the Tafl tournament (a Norse game), finally losing to the champion in a sudden death round. I also taught three people how to play Tafl.

After the feast I helped with cleanup. I had no idea the Barony owned so many dishes.

From the Home Front: Persona Dinner

On the 28th of November I attended a Persona Dinner at a friend’s house.

A Persona Dinner is one where everyone acts, for the whole meal, as if they were their SCA persona – no talk about movies or facebook or anything. It is an acting challenge – improv theater, if you will. For two hours or so I was Roger Gridley, a late 16th century English mercenary officer serving in Italy, saying the things Roger would say.

The co-hosts both had 10th century Moorish personas which made things interesting – one of them had Roger Gridley written into her own persona as a family relation and was something of a rule-breaker anyway so we could talk, but the other had no family connection with me and thus could not speak to me (she was unmarried, to make it worse). I could speak to her (and in fact my Roger would have been expected to speak to unrelated unmarried women fairly freely in his time and place), of course, which led her to address several answers to other guests (female, of course) or at one point mumbled to the table!

Also in attendance were an early 16th century Italian woman, a 10th century Moorish child (with a persona relation to the hosts but none in real life), a 15th century English couple, and a woman who didn’t really have a persona at all.

Under these circumstances odd things happen – Roger had no idea what a yurt was, so someone had to spend some time explaining it to him even though I knew perfectly well what one was. Roger made some comments on the certainties of military science that reflected the thoughts of the time but are idiotic to today’s eyes (the supremacy of the pike for example). Tomatoes were widely considered poisonous in some of our cultures but not others. Much of the conversation, of course, was us talking about ourselves.

As the hosts were Moors no wine or other alcoholic beverage was served, which Roger gently twitted his hostess about.

The food was excellent and I believe quite period (though prepared using modern equipment). We ate off more-or-less period serving dishes and tableware and were of course in full period garb. We sat on cushions at a low table as befitting 10th century Moors which I had no trouble simulating Roger’s awkwardness with. :-}

I considered apologizing to my hostess for the poor showing I made on the basis that I was on campaign and my baggage was stuck on the road (my SCA garb is oriented towards fighting or campaigning rather than court or dinner wear) but chose not to bring it up. I also wore a somewhat earlier-period sword than Roger would have normally carried.

All in all it was a great deal of fun and gave me a boost in motivation on updating my garb.

Spin, Spin, Spin

Boeing has issued a partial second offer on the SPEEA contract.

Boeing has made a big deal about how this is a much better offer than their last offer.

SPEEA has pointed out that it is still a worse offer than the existing contract.

Reading news stories on the subject today was an interesting education in spin.

Several articles emphasized improvements in this offer without specifying what they were improvements from – and without highlighting any of the takeaways. Provably correct but, in my biased opinion, misleading.

The union put out an email claiming that this contract was an attempt to split the union into factions – young and old, and ‘tech’ and ‘prof’ (the latter two being an existing division in SPEEA based on the possession of an engineering degree). By giving the techs the short end of the salary pools they attempt to create friction between the existing divisions, and by eliminating the pension benefit they create a situation where they can eventually play the ‘old guard’ off against the ‘young guard’ over retirement benefits. Probably correct in my biased opinion, but not provable.

Boeing, while offering its engineers a worse contract than we had, has given its executives double-digit raises this year and is giving the best stock dividend in years. The company, in defending this, claims that its engineers and executives are different ‘markets’. True. Engineers need to spend a decade in a particular and very narrow specialization within the aviation industry and be licensed by the Federal Government in order to be key employees at Boeing. Executives can come from anywhere and require no specific qualifications in order to be key employees at Boeing. They also get paid more. The company needs a huge number of engineers from a steadily shrinking pool. The company needs a small number of executives from a steadily expanding pool.

Hold on, something is backwards here…

Bipolar Disorder

There is a strong temptation in life to view things in black-and-white terms; one thing is right, the rest is wrong.

The problem is, this is almost always wrong. Most of the things in life come in shades of grey.

I think this is one of the fundamental problems with the US, and it manifests itself quite nicely in the political system.

We have a two party system. Technically there are other parties but they really don’t matter. Thus, since most people identify with one party or the other, there is room for only two positions on any issue. Yes, people hold a huge variety of positions on most issues, but they won’t be represented at the national level.

You may support the 2nd Amendment as written, the upcoming UN small arms ban, or anything in between, but when you’re voting for Federal office you have basically two choices: pro-gun or anti-gun.

You may support no abortions at all, or partial birth abortions and anything else, but again you’re pro-life or pro-choice.

The divisions within these blocks are often greater than the space between them, and what someone calls themselves is often driven less by their beliefs than by the people around them. Someone who supports limited-capacity hunting weapons only is pro-gun if they live in eastern Massachusetts or Washington D.C. Someone who tries to ban private ownership of automatic weapons is anti-gun in Texas.

Then we hit the problems with combinations. Despite the huge number of major issues, the parties only allow one set of positions each. The Democrats are nominally pro-choice and anti-gun. The Republicans are nominally pro-life and pro-gun. So what does an anti-gun pro-life person do? They throw away their vote on a third party (rare), or they vote for whichever issue they care more about. Note that with just two issues and a binary belief state there are four positions. If one allows for, say, four positions on an issue and ten issues there are over ONE MILLION combinations… only two of which are represented.

Now, some combinations are unlikely. Let’s say 90% of them are. A mere 100,000 positions. Yet in almost every election you have only two choices – A or B. Most often, neither A or B will take a firm stand on most of the issues – they’ll pick a few issues to take a stand on and spend most of their time attacking their opponent’s supposed positions on a few issues.

So we’re left to grope in the dark and make bad choices most of the time.

That’s assuming you have a choice at all. The most extreme case is also the most important – voting for president. However, thanks to some historical factors most of the votes in the presidential election don’t matter. Massachusetts is going Democrat. The Democrats don’t need to vote and the Republicans might as well stay home. The result is all but pre-ordained by God, no matter what happens with get-out-the-vote campaigns. The candidates don’t matter. In twenty years it might be different (or it might not) but no matter who is running in 2016 we can be quite sure of MA’s electoral votes.

Oddly, the electoral college was set up with the exact opposite in mind – to prevent a minority from being marginalized by ensuring they would have Federal representation. The problem is that the founders figured the minority would be geographically concentrated (more or less true at the time). Of course, they also wrote the Constitution so that the person who got the 2nd most votes for president would become vice president. Can you say President Obama and Vice President Romney?

I think there’s a nugget of a good idea there, however. Suppose that any presidential candidate who got at least one percent of the popular vote but failed to secure an electoral majority got a four-year term in the US Senate, with all the privileges thereof? Tens of millions of people voted for Romney – give ‘em a consolation prize. Senator At Large Romney. Yes, that means we’d also get Senator At Large Dukakis. No system is perfect.

I think this would be highly beneficial. All those marginalized voters in solidly ‘red’ or ‘blue’ states could vote for a third-party candidate. Someone with a wide enough appeal to carry the minority in half a dozen states could then represent those people at the federal level. Note that these people must be on the ballot for, and receive votes for, president.

Would this unbalance the Senate? Probably not. The need to hit 1% of the popular vote would cap us at 99 S-a-L’s (one person, after all, gets the job he’s running for) no matter what, but that would take such a fine balancing of the popular vote that we can safely rule it out. Let’s say we retain two ‘real’ presidential candidates going for the Oval Office. How much of the vote do they suck up? Let’s say a quarter each. They are, after all, the real contenders and most people will know it. The lion’s share of the votes in the ‘swing’ states will go to one of them. Half the vote gone, and we’ve got a POTUS and a S-a-L. Then some of the vote is going to go to people who fail to reach 1%. A few percent of the vote every election goes to people who fail to get even a single electoral vote, after all. Plenty of people are going to overshoot, as well – 5% doesn’t get you five seats. Let’s say you wind up with one S-a-L for every 2% of the vote. We wind up with POTUS and 26 S.a.L (including the leader who lost). If we say 3% is the average we go down to 17 S-a-L. And, of course, these guys aren’t going to be a single voting block. Some are Republicans from Democrat states and some are Democrats from Republican states (a Republican from New England and another from the Pacific coast – no point in getting on the ballot in every state; in fact better NOT to be on the ballot in swing states). A few are third-party folks. Libertarian, Green, whatever.

Ross Perot would have gotten seats in both 1992 and 1996, though very few others (no one in 2012, for example, though Johnson came close) would have based on historical votes. Still, given that three or so candidates have made it onto most or all of the state ballots in most of the recent elections we can be fairly sure this would result in some additional senators. After all, someone who has no chance of getting anything is a less attractive use of your vote than someone who has a good chance of getting something.

Best of all, this might break things up entirely. If someone knows the ‘consolation prize’ is there, why not keep going if you don’t quite get your party’s nomination? Sure, you won’t be POTUS this time, but you’ll be a senator. Or… will you? Go to the Presidential debates and ask tough questions of the ‘leaders’. Take a hardline position – you’ll catch part of the base.

Now the leaders have a hard choice – dodge the questions from the 2nd string and look like wafflers, or answer them and actually tell the electorate how they feel. I think that’s a win-win for the voters no matter who you’re going for.

Constitutional Amendment, anyone?

The Morning After

Sometimes I hate it when I'm right.

A sampling of today's headlines, neither random nor nonpartisan:

Obama Re-Election Signals New Phase in Syria War
ABC News
a.k.a. the US will now give even more weapons (that it won't allow its own citizens to buy) to fanatic Muslims.

US election party in Beijing: part celebration, part education
Los Angeles Times
This one speaks for itself.

Kremlin Cheers Obama's Re-Election
ABC News
As does this one.

Hard Mass. race ends in victory for liberalism
Boston.com
It wasn't just in MA, though "socialism" might be a better word.

Dollar Falls After Obama Victory, Losses Seen Limited
CNBC.com
I'm surprised they're willing to admit the first part, but not at all surprised it happened.

Obama Win Keeps NASA on Course — Toward an Asteroid
Space.com
For those who flunked math and physics, collisions with other objects in space are Bad Things.

The best Election Night tweets
CNN.com
Because it is much more important to cover fluff than substance - after all, if we covered substantive issues in detail Romney might have won!

Asian Shares Warm To Obama Re-election
Wall Street Journal
The dollar is falling but Asian markets are going up. So the people with money on the line think Obama's win is good for Asia and bad for the US.

Republican Karl Rove calls Barack Obama Fox News projection 'premature'
Telegraph.co.uk
Well, technically the electoral college hasn't cast their votes yet, but while it isn't official yet I don't think any sane, informed person is in any doubt.

Obama win has US investors staring at fiscal cliff
Chicago Tribune
Yup. The man who gave us the fiscal cliff in the first place is now in charge of leading an almost identically divided Congress to solve it. I feel so much better now!

I've expected PBHO to win for months, though I'll admit being disappointed that Romney didn't do better. Worse, however, is that I can't really see the election four years from now being any better. For the record, I'm not ruling out PBHO being on the ballot again. It's not like he cares about the Constitution or that he won't have a stacked Supreme Court ready to rule flagrant violations of it as valid. Sure, I heard a lot of comments from him that this was his last election.

Four years ago I heard him promise millions more jobs, among other things.

I'd say 'fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me' except I wasn't fooled the first time.

Mandatory retirement age for airplanes?

This past week Boeing announced that the youngest B-52 in service with the USAF had reached 50 years of age.

That’s right folks, the YOUNGEST aircraft in the USAF B-52 fleet has been flying for half a century. 76 B-52’s remain in the USAF fleet. The B-52 got its designation because it first flew in 1952.

It doesn’t end there, though – the B-52 fleet is expected to remain in service past 2040. That means some of the planes will have been flying for 80 years. It is conceivable that someone might fly into combat on the exact same bird their great grandfather flew on deterrence patrol. The 2040 date, for that matter, assumes that the retirement of the fleet (once scheduled for LAST CENTURY) isn’t pushed out AGAIN.

Why is the USAF flying such elderly aircraft? Well, let’s first note that while the B-52’s are the extreme for combat aircraft, they’re hardly the only aging birds in the fleet. In fact, the average age of the USAF’s 5,000+ aircraft is 23 years. For comparison, during Vietnam the average age was nine years.

The last KC-135, still the backbone of the aerial refueling fleet, rolled off the lines in 1965. There are still over 400 in inventory, including 183 assigned to active units. They are supplemented by a mere 60 of the ‘modern’ (last built 1987) KC-10. The FIRST delivery of the replacement, the KC-46 which I’m working on, is still years away.

The F-15 first flew in the 1970’s. The latest model, the F-15E, dates from the 1980’s… and is still in production for overseas customers though the last one for the USAF was built in 2001.

The C-130 first flew in the 1950’s.

OK, I think you get the picture.

But still… why are we flying 50 year old bombers? Well, for one thing, if we just retired them we’d lose 40% of the heavy bomber fleet. Aside from the B-52 there are only 20 B-2’s (1990’s) and about ninety B-1’s (1980’s) in service with NOTHING in the pipeline. OK, there’s the ‘next generation bomber’ or whatever we’re calling it now, but that’s essentially a blank sheet of paper with the earliest forecast delivery in the 2020’s.

Not all is doom and gloom! The F-35 is brand new. So new that although it first flew in 2006 it still isn’t cleared for operational use.

OK, maybe all is doom and gloom. Do we need a mandatory retirement age for airplanes?

Interesting and Slightly Creepy

A friend sent me a link to this article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/19/magazine/shopping-habits.html?pagewanted=all&_r=2&

It is titled "How Companies Learn Your Secrets" and is primarily about retailers (using Target as an example) using data mining and targeted promotions to make people better customers. Notably, figuring out when a woman is starting her 2nd trimester based on what she buys and sending her tailored coupon offers to change her shopping habits. While the reporter didn't have access to the data he needed to prove it works (in fairness, he admits this) it sure seems to based on what he presented. Slightly creepy.

Underlying that, however, it is about learned behavior - what the author calls the cue-routine-reward loop. This is the interesting part.

We've all heard about muscle memory. We all know how hard it can be to break a habit, and how often even after we 'break' it we regress. Our brain is capable of being programed to do certain tasks (even complex ones) without much or any conscious thought. The reporter used backing out of your driveway as an example - when you first learn to drive backing up is hard; lots of actions to perform in the correct order. If you've been driving for years you probably back out of the driveway without thinking about it. I sure do. Once you have you get a tiny mental 'reward' - stress of backing up drops off and you're on your way. Cue: getting in the car. Routine: back out. Reward: hard part done, into drive and go! Yay!

To break bad habits it helps to recognize both the cue and the reward, while what we naturally focus on is the routine. If we just change the routine and fail to recognize the cue or provide a reward, we'll probably repeat the old routine if presented with the cue.

The human brain is also interesting... and slightly creepy.

Arming the Future Enemy

Some people want the .gov to take our tax dollars, buy weapons civilians couldn’t legally buy ourselves, and send the weapons to Syrian rebels. Great plan, right?

Well, in their defense, there is quite a lot of precedent.

We sent arms and advisers to Afghan rebels who were fighting the Soviets. A quarter of a century later they were used against us when we invaded after 9/11.

We sent arms and advisers to Libyan rebels who were fighting the Libyan government. Less than a year later some of those same rebels killed our ambassador to the country and several other embassy personnel.

But those were anomalies, right? Most of the time it works?

We sent arms and advisers to the Vietnamese resistance against the Japanese in WWII. They became the Viet Cong. (OK, there I’ll agree we were doing the right thing at the time – what’s the road to Hell paved with again?)

Anyone seeing a pattern here? The results vary, sure, but it never works out for us.

The enemy of my enemy is my enemy’s enemy. No more, no less. (Thank you, Seven Habits of Highly Effective Pirates.)

If you take in a stray dog, feed it, care for it, and love it, it will not turn on you. This is the major difference between a man and a dog.

Alright, so the US has a terrible track record for the results of arming rebels. That the only problem?

Not even close.

The only thing we truly know about the rebels is that they are willing to fight their own government. But we’re willing to send them weapons that we’re NOT willing to sell to people who’ve demonstrated their loyalty to our own government. Something here is very, very wrong. Why is an Islamic fundamentalist at most one degree of separation away from a terrorist more trustworthy than an honorably discharged veteran of the US military? Why give weapons to the former but refuse to sell them to the latter?

Would US citizens even want them? Short answer: yes. Longer answer: yes, yes, yes, please! Just look at the sky-high prices pre-ban automatic weapons are sold for, regardless of their condition or utility. Those prices are high because there’s a very limited supply and, despite some truly obnoxious Federal roadblocks, high demand. There’s also a lot of people like me who can’t justify spending $5,000 for a weapon which is in current production and sells to the .gov for $1,000. And did I mention the obnoxious roadblocks? Then there’s things like SAMs, mortars, and rocket launchers (which, yes, we have sent in the past and will probably be sending to Syria soon) that are all but impossible to legally own.

But they’re dangerous!

Indeed. Rebels we’ve sold weapons to have killed a large number of US soldiers over the years. The weapons they use have proved that they are dangerous. Oh, that wasn’t what you meant? You meant they’d be dangerous here? Well, I’m not sure why US citizens dying here is worse than US citizens dying overseas, but let’s take a look.

Let’s look at our own history and see if we can find heavy weapons owned by individuals. We don’t have to go very far – in fact without private ownership of the heaviest weapons then available (cannon) our nation probably wouldn’t exist.

Of course, private weapons weren't all we fought with. The French crown sent us weapons. Then when their people rebelled against them a few years later we... generally were supportive of the rebels.

So sending weapons to rebels isn't just a problem for us.

From the Rear Echelon: Midhaven Ithra

Midhaven ran a small Ithra, but a fun one. Lunch was provided both days by a highly skilled kitchen crew.

First class Saturday morning I took an English Country Dance class and managed not to damage anyone. One of the dances was a circle dance which included several parts where all the guys move into the center and clap which we hammed up increasingly as we went through it. The ladies rotated between laughing at us and rolling their eyes at us.

Second class was persona development – the instructor spent part of it In Persona. Yes, she earned the Capital Letter Form. She’s a 12th century Moorish woman and simply did not acknowledge the males in the class who were not family. She expressed sympathy for women who had no children, and shock at the one who’s husband helped raise their children. She promised to pray for several people including me.

Saturday afternoon I took two classes on the new heraldry rules and submission process because I really, really, need to get moving on registering my name and device. I was, after all, given my AoA over two years ago (and by the hand of no less than then-Queen Miranda!). Luckily it doesn’t seem like much has changed and the few changes will probably make it easier or at least no harder.

Sunday I took a class entitled “Madonnas, Sluts, and Ladies” about female roles in period. This was a fascinating study of not just what the roles were, but why they were that way and how they came to be that way. I would like to emphasize that the SCA is very different from period in its ideas on gender roles, though we retain many of the more attractive parts (chivalry and such).

Cooking for large groups (basically about the difference between cooking for five in a fully stocked modern kitchen and cooking for fifty in the middle of nowhere) and another class on heraldry rounded out the event.

I was in quite august company for Sunday lunch – my table included a duchess, a baroness, and a double peer (knight and pelican) – more the crowd I’d expect at head table at a feast than eating with me. All three of them were people I knew at least fairly well and respected highly. I’m inherently a respecter of hierarchies, and know my place in the SCA (low, though by no means the bottom and with considerable potential to rise). Actually as of writing this I’m #5,708 on the Kingdom Order of Precedence (out of 6,129).

From the Children's Crusade

This past weekend was Banner War. Normally, this is where the various households of the Barony compete with each other. This year there was an unusual (I’m going to guess unprecedented) entry: Youth Armored Combat.

In the SCA, we train our children from an early age to kill. Starting out well before their teens with glorified pool noodles called ‘boffers’, and working up to scaled-down versions of adult armor and weapons, the next generation of knights get an early start. Youth Armored Combat is the ‘upper level’ of this progression, one step shy of adult heavy combat.

I suppose some people may find this disturbing, but I frankly find it quite refreshing, as while exact results vary YAC members tend to be better people than the general run of children these days. Sure, they hit people with sticks – but only if the people being hit have sticks too. There is also a great deal to be said for conditioning children to come to a screeching halt at the command “HOLD!”

YAC, understandably, gained considerable support from both households and mercenaries (I joined their cause for a glass of wine and a cookie), and based on Saturday evening’s court were well on their way to winning the war.

I spent much of Saturday working on my mon die and making my first bunch (small bead). The former went quite well thanks to some guidance from Master Raymond, the latter proved quite tricky.

While there are many ways to make punches here’s the one I’m using. You start with concrete nails (chosen because they are readily available steel chunks in about the right size and shape). Heat to cherry-red at the tip then let cool to soften them. Easy. Now using files and sandpaper form the tip into the right shape. Very, very hard. This is handwork to a higher standard than many machine processes will produce – the goal is a perfectly hemispherical head of just the right size. Still working on this. Once the shape is right (do a gentle test punch on soft metal), harden with the torch (tip to cherry red again and quench), clean, and then temper (heat back from the tip until it is just turning yellow and quench). This will produce a punch hard enough to use on your die without wearing down too quickly.

I competed in the Vox Off after a number of years of meaning to without getting around to it. Vox Off is voice heraldry in its various forms – court, field, town cry, and presentation. Each contestant is given a number of pieces to read (getting about 30 seconds prior to starting to speak to review the material for each) at various distances from the judges (5 to 40 yards). You are graded on how well you could be understood, your pronunciation of proper names (including the odd Welsh or Gaelic one to trip you up), your general tone and style (different for the different forms) and in the case of field heraldry what you say. Field heraldry is acting as an announcer for a tournament. Each fighter generally writes their name and title(s) on a card and hands it to you. You then get to figure out how to properly announce them and in what order (“Duke Sir Sharpsword, Sergeant to Baroness Wisdom” gets announced as “Duke Sharpsword” and needs to be introduced before “Count Bigshield”). The material ranges from perfectly serious (actual award presentations) to humorous (fencers being advised not to trip over their own lace and ruffles while entering the field) to fiendishly difficult (Norse and Middle English passages). Two of us read the oath Tolkien used for Gondor’s knights of the Citadel (used by some SCA groups as an oath of fealty). I had to read section of a Norse Edas (translated to modern English; they’re not THAT evil) in a format I’d never encountered before. As you may have gathered, the contest is as much about finding and training new heralds as it is about seeing who can speak loudly and clearly. Three of us entered, and I came out the winner! Being a veteran bard was a big help. I thus was able to score three warpoints for YAC. Total of five points to YAC and one to Redstone for Vox.

Redstone also put their banner up, as did a few other houses whose names I didn’t get. Methelstede helped run YACs entry, and Red Plague was, surprisingly enough, absent.

Overall, much more successful than the real children’s crusade. Not that that was a high bar to reach…

Thoughts on the SPEEA Contract

I've never been entirely sure how I feel about being in a union. But I'm in it no matter how I feel.

I have, however, no mixed feelings at all about the current contract - or more accurately Boeing's attitude towards negotiations. I'm reminded of a quote attributed to the Imperial Japanese shortly before WWII "How can we negotiate with you when you won't give us everything we want?"

Boeing told us the contract had 'market leading compensation'... and counted Wal Mart (no, I am NOT kidding) as one of the comparators. As someone who flies on commercial airplanes I'd hope that the engineers who designed them got a little better pay and benefits than people who stock shelves at a superstore. Yes, very evil-capitalist-1% of me. If Boeing had compared us to other aerospace companies and said we had better compensation than them I'd have considered that a highly valid and important point. As soon as you put Wal Mart into the calculation I no longer care what the output is.

Boeing told us it was a great contract with the subtext that it is a lousy economy and we should be happy to be getting anything... but while the economy is indeed lousy and likely to get worse over the next few years Boeing could have half its current orders cancelled, not get any more, and still be able to keep the production lines cranking at full tilt for years. Nor is the contract a great one. If Boeing had come out and said "look guys, the economy is likely to stay bad for years and we're really worried about keeping the company going thanks to our lousy business decisions on the 787 costing us a bundle - would you please take a bad contract now and we'll make it up to you next cycle? By the way we learned our lesson and we'll never run a program that way again?" I'd have been highly sympathetic.

The lion's share of the text of the contract is the same as the last one. So what's the big deal? Well, for one thing, Boeing inserted sentences in several places that essentially say "if this part of the contract ever conflicts with Boeing policy the policy wins." So if Boeing wants to completely rewrite the medical benefits in the middle of the contract (hey, they've never tried to do that before... oh wait they did) there's nothing we can do about it. Boeing has assured us that they "have no plans" to do that. Hey look! A promise that means nothing, since even if they were telling the truth it wouldn't stop them from making plans the day after we sign. For all the force those sections have they might as well be removed entirely.

The US is still involved in the longest running large-scale combat deployment in its history (but we'll be pulling out Real Soon Now! Hey, didn't I hear that four years ago...?). So now is a GREAT time to cut medical benefits for employees on Military Leave - which, for those of you not familiar with the term, has nothing to do with vacation. It means you're a reservist or national guardsman doing your annual active duty requirement or, and here's the reason Boeing's trying to cut benefits, you've been activated to be, say, sent overseas to a war zone in all but name for the 3rd time. Sure, I expect that's costing Boeing a bundle - both in lost work hours and in extra medical claims. I have zero sympathy for the company here. I'd have voted to reject the contract if this was the only thing in it I didn't like. As it is this is just the icing on the cake.

The one piece of good news? The other members of SPEEA agree with me in general even if not in all particulars. Of 21,842 ballots issued (i.e. eligible votes) 15,097 voted to reject - over 69%. Impressive enough by itself, but note that, as is sadly typical in this country, not everyone voted. A hair under 72% did. So over 96% of the votes cast were to reject.

I hope this makes Boeing sit up, pay attention, and either start negotiating in good faith or strip out the offending parts of their proposal (salary pools that beat inflation would be nice, but I don't insist on it). Because I'm as ambivalent about striking as I am about being in a union in the first place... but to preserve medical benefits for men and women in uniform I'll cheerfully walk a picket line.

Government Money

The FY13 Federal budget is 3.8 trillion dollars – including a more than 700 billion dollar deficit pushing the debt to 17.5 trillion dollars (more than the annual GDP).

Social Security is 820 billion of the budget – but social security taxes will only bring in 707 billion. Social security spending as a percent of GDP has doubled in the last 40 years to over 8%.

Medicare and Medicaid are another 811 billion of the budget – and medicare taxes will bring in just 214 billion.

State and local governments are expected to spend another 1.7 trillion dollars.

The various governments, therefore, are spending over 35% of the US GDP.

The US Gov, as of 2010, employs about 3,000,000 people directly. State governments have another 4,000,000 between them. Local governments another 11,000,000.

The US workforce is about 150,000,000. So 12% of the workforce works directly for the government.

Go on, tell me we shouldn't cut government spending.

From the Frontlines: Autumn War

Autumn War is so named because it takes place in the… um… well, summer, actually. Hey, it’s the SCA, we’re lucky it isn’t in the spring.

First off, the downsides: it was a frustrating drive both ways – in fact a google-predicted ~2.5 hour drive was almost exactly 4 hours each way. A four hour drive is not inherently bad for me, but an expected 2.5 hour drive (OK, I expected 3 hours) that becomes a 4 hour drive is highly annoying. Oh well. Also while helping setup for bardic the second night a spark from the fire burned a hole in my best shirt – fixable, but why did it have to be my best shirt?

Upsides, however, were more numerous, so let’s talk about them.

First off, Methelstede performed two showings of Arlecchino’s Surprise (in which Arlecchino has exactly one line and never appears on stage). In the second showing I provided the sound and visual effects for Ugolino (sp?) from offstage. We also did one showing of Arlecchino and the Cup of Love (the same show we did at June Faire) with me again being Lelio. I think the cast is a little burned out right now and we have no solid plans for future showings, though the general feeling seemed to be that we’d like to do a play again in the not-too-distant future. It is possibly worth noting that both the plays are written by a SCAdian using the characters and style of a set of plays from late-period Italy. The best short description I can come up with is that these plays were a proto-sitcom; the characters remain the same (and never change from episode to episode regardless of what happens) but the situations are different, and there are running gags despite the lack of any continuity of plot (so while Fiorenetta and Capitano are married in Surprise they are not married and never have been in Cup of Love). This presumably made things easier for both the audience, the writers, and the cast, as everyone would know, for example, that Pantalone was an old miser as soon as his name was mentioned.

Second, I created fire. Sure, using modern tools I do that all the time. At Autumn War, however, I created fire using nothing but a piece of flint, a steel striker, a few pieces of charred cloth, and some unraveled rope. This was a common way to start a fire in period (the bow method taught to boy scouts is more primitive and time consuming, and things like pre-made matches or flintlock strikers were too expensive for routine use where they existed at all). You can probably find a video online somewhere, but let me tell you it is harder than it looks. Getting sparks from striking steel on flint is easy. Making charred cloth is easy (though it is also easy to do it wrong). Finding a bird’s nest or a bit of old rope and making the nest is easy. Getting the spark from the steel to catch on the cloth and then blowing at just the right increasing level of force to ignite the nest is VERY HARD. The teacher demonstrated and had a solid flame well under a minute after he started striking (setup took a little longer). None of the three of us in the class came anywhere close to that. We did all manage flame in the end, but my flint had been chipped almost to the point of uselessness. At a guess I spent the better part of ten minutes not counting breaks and went through 20 or so pieces of charred cloth (maybe more). I will stick to modern firestarting methods wherever possible.

Third, I marshaled for some very fun rapier war scenarios. The first had a ‘ship’ (an oval slightly pointed on one end) laid out on the ground. On it were some red pieces of cloth representing fire. Yes, fire. See, these other guys came along and attacked the represented ship but forgot the key sequence of pillage THEN burn. Still, even smoky loot is loot, so they boarded anyway. Meanwhile one of the best fighters in the group was picked to act as The Kraken. The Kraken fought with case (a rapier in each hand), and would go around, tap someone near the edge of the ship, and require them to step off and fight him. If they won they got to go back to the burning ship (yay!). If they lost… well, they were eaten. Stepping on the fire was also counted as a kill. The second scenario was “The Water of Life” – a free-for-all where everyone gets a paper cup with water in it (any amount of water you want). Every time you are killed you must show one of the marshals that you still have enough water to cover the bottom of the cup and you get to go back in – an unlimited number of resurrections as long as you have water. Naturally this leads to people aiming for the cups. This is quite amusing for all involved, and leads to a large number of jokes.

The weather was much better than anticipated over the weekend thanks to a heavy overcast Saturday and Sunday (Friday it was well over 90 and sunny, but I didn’t arrive until Friday evening). Only a few scattered drops of rain fell, and the night time temperatures were some of the warmest I’ve ever seen (it generally gets very cold in a tent at night around here). Methelstede camped with Key Point, who also had Black Company camping with them, and Key Pointe provided breakfast and dinner for a reasonable fee (good food too – omelets to order, duck soup, deep-fried bacon, pasta with ham and cheese…). The inevitable bardic circles suffered a little from the camp setup and the fact that we performed the plays in the evenings just beforehand but they were still fun (“Not the knight with the shiniest armor in all the land, the finest horse in all the world, who has defeated the seven greatest nights in the seven tourneys in the seven kingdoms and slain the dragon!” “Yes I am the knight with the shiniest armor in all the land, the finest horse…”).

Overall it was a good event, but I’m quite glad there isn’t one this weekend!

From the Recruiting Station: WA Ren Faire

Saturday I went to the local Ren Faire.

My perspective on Ren Faires has changed since I became a belly dancer and as I become more experienced in the SCA. I watched a trio of dancers (along with some other people from the troop who showed up) and found myself critiquing them for things like touching the ‘live’ edge of the dance sword, etc. I also considered their garb from a much more experienced eye – down to figuring out how they’d made their tops.

There were some entertaining acts (including a ‘Robin Hood’ show that used children recruited from the audience as actors/props), but most importantly I was recruited into a company of pike with sleeves of shot. It was admittedly a very short tour of duty, of course.

The demo group had a little over a dozen people including a sergeant, an ensign, two arquebusiers, and eight pike(wo)men. I include the feminine form because I think almost half of them were. They had some extra pikes (both adult and children’s sizes) which they loaned out, forming two ranks of novices behind the two ranks of veterans. They then taught us how to hold our pikes, march with our pikes, how to form a pike square (with only sixteen pikemen a very SMALL square), and the different angles to use for fighting infantry and cavalry. Finally they actually had us wheel about the center of the square (which is a LOT harder than it sounds for any formation, much less one holding ten foot pikes), and posed us to fight while the arquebusiers fired a volley (yeah, there were only two of them – they fired at the same time so it was a volley). As my SCA persona is an officer in a company of pike it was a doubly enjoyable experience. I’m seriously considering seeking them out for further persona development.

FYI, “sleeves of shot” is the period term for a company of infantry that had men with firearms, normally arquebuses, since very early on the gunmen were kept to the edges of the formation so as not to disturb the order of pikes. This was because the pikes were considered the real power of the formation. It was not until the end of the SCA period that the pike square was replaced by the more flexible rotating line formations that allowed the arquebus to become the dominant weapon.

Triage

In the world we live in there are usually two answers to any question: the simple one, and the real one.

Politicians only seem to have time for the simple one.

Partially, that is because the modern media has trained them to talk to the public in sound bites. So any concept too difficult to fit into a sound bite, such as the real answers to most questions that the government should be addressing, doesn’t get talked about. Now, if you’re a politician and mostly concerned with getting re-elected, why spend time on something you’re not going to talk to the public about?

So the simple answers tend to be the only ones that get into legislation.

“But Federal laws are enormous! Thousands of pages! Surely they can’t be simple?”

Wrong. The basic concept that the law is based on is often quite simple.

The basic concept of Obamacare, for example, is that everyone should have healthcare. Simple concept. Easy to say, easy to defend on an emotional level.

Problem is, not one bit of that enormous bill with its simple concept answered the question of ‘how do we make healthcare better?’

To see why, let’s talk about triage.

If you provide a paramedic (or a doctor, but let’s talk about paramedics since I am one) with one patient, they treat that patient. Healthcare or no healthcare, we treat that patient. We do our best to collect their healthcare information so they can be billed later (because that’s where we get the money that allows us to treat the next patient), but bottom line is whatever healthcare they have or don’t have, we treat the patient.

If you provide a paramedic with ten patients, they treat none of them.

Wait, what?

Yup, you read that right, NONE OF THEM get care. Because our lone paramedic is going to do something called ‘triage’. He’s going to assess each patient and put them in one of three or four (depending on exact protocol) categories. These are color coded, and the colors are often used as shorthand even outside of triage. Exact definitions vary by region, circumstances, and a few other factors, but more or less they break down as:

Red: requires immediate care, but with immediate care can probably be saved.

Yellow: requires care, but not immediately.

Green: does not require care. Note that this doesn’t mean uninjured: someone with a paper cut is injured, but they’re going to get better on their own (OK, if they’ve got a couple of rare blood disorders or if they swoon from the sight of blood and fall down the stairs they won’t get better, but those are extraordinarily rare and triage is all about playing the odds).

Black: probably cannot be saved even with immediate care. Again, note that this doesn’t mean they’re already dead, or that we wouldn’t treat them if they were the only patient. If we’ve got one patient with no pulse we treat them (we do that quite often in fact). If we’re passing out triage tags someone without a pulse gets a black tag.

Let’s talk about those green and black tag patients a little more. Again, a green tag doesn’t mean you’re just going to be sent home. Triage is done quickly, which means that it can miss things. Someone who feels, and looks, fine may have internal injuries for example which are actually very serious. So some of the available medical resources watch the green tags. They’re watching a much larger group, so they’re providing little to no actual care. Then the black tags. Most people don’t respond well to being told “sorry, you’re going to die, please go sit in the corner over there so your blood doesn’t create a slip hazard.” In civilian triage we seldom reach the stage where we black-tag people who are still conscious, of course, but it does happen. In the military a large dose of morphine is often applied to solve the consciousness problem. On the civil side someone is often assigned to cover the bodies. Again, they aren’t giving care, or at least not care that is going to save anyone.

The bottom line is that as you increase the number of patients the amount of care given starts to drop. If you flood a medical unit (hospital, ambulance company, whatever) with minor to moderate cases the amount of care given will drop sharply. If the unit is not well managed or if the crisis is prolonged, effective care can approach zero. This doesn’t happen in the US, where there are numerous methods in place for temporarily overwhelmed units to get temporary support and providers are generally well trained and equipped. It happens all the time in the third world. It happens in Europe on a fairly frequent basis.

All clear? Good, stick a pin in that key point and let’s move on.

ERs and ambulances spend most of their time treating people who would be ‘yellow’ or ‘green’ in a triage situation. We complain about it on a regular basis. Sometimes these people know they aren’t really seriously ill but want the attention. Still, most people who aren’t actually that badly off don’t seek emergency medical care. They, in effect, self-triage themselves as green or yellow and don’t clog up emergency services with their problems. Another key point: people without insurance self-triage better than those with. Someone who knows they’ll have to pay for their care is much more likely to take some over-the-counter medication and hope they get better. Another key point: most people DO get better on their own given some time and a little self-treatment. Sometimes, of course, they diagnose themselves incorrectly and wind up being red. And yet another key point: just about everyone who winds up being red gets treated whether they have insurance or not.

See where I’m going? The higher the portion of the population that has insurance, and thus a great reduction in their immediate cost for getting emergency care, the more low-priority cases the emergency medical system has to deal with… and eventually the less efficient it gets at providing care.

Now to me the obvious solution is that if you think you’re close to a capacity problem (which the rapidly rising cost of health care and the generally crowded state of emergency rooms leads me to believe we are) the logical thing to do is increase the capacity of the medical system. How do you do that? Train more doctors. Train more nurses. Medical technicians of all types. Pharmacists. Lab techs. Build or expand medical facilities while you’re at it, and maybe buy a few more ambulances.

On the surface, this solution ought to be very appealing to politicians – after all, that’s a lot of JOBS, the majority of which pay at least a living wage. Two problems: one, that takes a lot of time. It takes the better part of a decade to turn someone into a doctor who is a net provider of care (interns actually reduce the care provided since they have to be so closely supervised, and in some branches junior residents aren’t much better). That’s bound to be an election away whatever office you hold, so no politician really has an interest in pushing for it. Second, how do you train more doctors? Uh… teach them? Yes, but how do you increase the pool of people who are willing AND capable of becoming doctors? That’s a VERY complicated problem – and one that we’re not only not solving, that is becoming worse. The only thing that is keeping the US medical profession growing are the addition of non-clinical positions (usually as the result of government legislation) and the importation of providers from overseas. That’s right folks, a LOT of doctors are trained in India or the UK (to give two examples) and then work in the US. While this is just fine from a temporary prospective (most of those doctors are just as good as the ones we train in the US), it hardly seems sustainable. The domestically-trained pool of nurses is graying fast, and nursing schools are shrinking. Paramedic training is healthy last I heard, but the drop-out rate in EMS is appalling.

So at the same time our glorious leader has ensured medical care for all, the pool of providers is shrinking. Further, as discussed above, as the ratio of patients to providers rises, the amount of care drops. Can anyone say “negative feedback” and “descending spiral”?

I’ll be fully frank and honest: I don’t know how to solve the healthcare problem in the US, and yes we most certainly DO have a problem. The long term trend is especially bad. On the other hand, I do know what we need, and what we don’t need. We need more providers. We need fewer lawsuits over claimed malpractice. We need less well-meaning but ignorant government legislation (HIPPA was the crowning example when I was active, but was neither the first nor the last – what do you call someone who goes to the hospital every three days with the same problem? A Medicare patient). We need, as we need so desperately in so many fields in the US, to think about the long term.

But most importantly I don’t know any way to make actually solving our healthcare problem appeal to politicians, because I don’t know any way to compress this post into a sound bite that will help them get votes.

On the Move

Yup, I did Boeing’s On The Move challenge again this year.

This year the company offered a $100 gift card as an incentive for doing an average of 10,000 steps per day over the course of the 42 day program.

While I did not manage to reach 10,000 steps every day, I did make the average. My total steps were 427,433.

Getting 10,000 steps a day when you work a desk job is HARD. One day a week I’m currently a traveling circus going around the Everett site to touch base with various groups that aren’t located at Harbor Pointe, so 1/7 of the time I made my daily goal with ease. 10,000 steps is about five miles. From wearing the pedometer the rest of the year I found I averaged about 3,500 steps a day, so I needed to walk over three extra miles per day.

Each On The Move my goal has risen, but unless my job changes I think I've hit the limit of what I can really do.

Lucky 7!

As of July 29th, I have worked for Boeing for 7 years.

Let's take a look at my hours (and days):

Regular time: 12,920 (1,615)
Overtime: 1,849 (50)
%OT: 14.31

Vacation: 520 (65)
Holiday: 672 (84)
Jury Duty: 8 (1)
Sick Leave: 488 (61)

Work Total: 14,769 (1,665)
PDO Total: 1,688 (211)
Grand Total: 16,457

I've been at Boeing for 1,742 M Days (Manufacturing Days - basically work days), on 92.7% of which I've been at work.

I've been at Boeing for 2,557 Calender Days, on 65.1% of which I've been at work.

The longest I've gone with no overtime was 7 pay periods

The longest run I've had with OT every pay period was 59 pay periods - over two years.

I had one pay period where I didn't work at all (combination vacation and holiday).

You'll also note that my OT hours exceed my paid time off hours.

I have worked on three airplane programs (787, 747-8, 767-2C/KC-46A), plus 'sustaining' (all production models) certification.

I have worked in four buildings (and several locations in two of them) on two sites, including the largest building in the world by volume.

I have been promoted once.

I have not yet flown on an airplane I've worked on (not, I would like to emphasize, from choice, but simply from lack of opportunity).

I have worked at Boeing for over 1/5 of my life.

What's next?

Newsworthy Death

Yesterday morning on the way in to work I was treated to about 20 minutes (out of a 30 minute commute) about two incidents in which, as the media was typically proud to say, guns killed people.

One of these was, in fact, an unusual incident (and thus according to at least one definition newsworthy).

A total of 13 people were killed.

Now, 13 people dying is serious. On the other hand…

Statistically, over 6,500 people died in the US yesterday. So one in 500 got news coverage.

Over 1,500 died of cancer. None got news coverage.

Over 2,000 died of cardiovascular disease. None got news coverage.

Over 180 died of diabetes. None got new coverage.

But those are diseases! Indeed.

Some 95 died in auto accidents. None got news coverage.

But those were accidents! True, though most motor vehicle ‘accidents’ have a human failure or decision as the root cause.

Just over 100 committed suicide. None got news coverage.

Over 1,000 died from drug overdoses. None got news coverage.

On an average day, 30 people are killed by homicide with a firearm. Even if we simply add on yesterday’s incident, more people died of Parkinson’s disease.

Ah, but the news should only report unusual incidents!

OK, how about deaths from salmonella infections? Those only happen about twice a month. When was the last time you heard of one on the news? I can’t recall, but it certainly wasn’t last month, or within the last few months. Malaria only kills a few times a year (in the US – worldwide it is a MAJOR killer). Again, not really in the news.

About a third of homicides are committed without a firearm, yet they get much less than a third of the coverage.

Gee, I wonder why?

From the Highlands

“No really, Officer, I was rubbing alcohol all over my body – the man in the green skirt told me to!”

But we’ll come back to that.

This past weekend I went to the Highland Games in Skagit (just one of several around here – I wonder if there are more Scots in Scotland or in the Pacific Northwest?) Originally I was going to help out with the SCA demo, but I had a garb failure – I only have two SCA shirts, and one was on loan and one was too stained for a demo. I went anyway, though, because opportunities to see men throw small trees around are few.

There was, indeed, much throwing of 17 foot logs (women only have to throw a 14 foot log – not mocking, I doubt I could get a ten footer to flip end over end). There were also sheepdog trials (mostly border collies: “11:00AM: Sheep! My favorite thing!”), highland dancing (with and without swords), and many other appropriately Scottish pastimes. Such as bagpipes. Lots of bagpipes. I went to Carnegie Mellon, one of only two places in the world you can get a degree in bagpipes, and I’m pretty sure that’s the most pipes I’ve ever seen in one place. I think the massed bands must have fielded 60 or so (plus three pipe majors and a host of drummers). I actually got to the point where the pipes faded into the background, since between the ten or so pipe bands practicing and competing plus the various soloists there was pipe music pretty much all day long.

I’m mostly, however, going to talk about food and drink.

Now, at a Highland Games in the US I don’t expect much haggis (a little, to be sure, but not a lot). However, when stands selling not just non-Scottish, but other cultural food outnumber the ones selling things from the British Isles, something is wrong. Ice cream? Soda? Pizza? American fair food, unexceptional at any outdoor event. Gyros? Quesadillas? Not so much. There was only ONE stand selling meat pies (quite good ones, in fact – I had three different ones over the course of the weekend), and that was also the only place selling haggis. Curly fries (not even called chips!), were more in evidence. Still, the meat pies were quite good. I was not adventurous enough to try the haggis. Did I mention the meat pies were good? Perhaps none of the other vendors in past years could make a meat pie to compete, and so the stand represented not a regrettable lack of taste, but the triumph of capitalism. Probably not, but hey…

Ah, drink. Now, when you think “drink” and “Scotland” you probably think of Scotch Whiskey pretty quickly. And so you should! While not a connoisseur I do consider myself an enthusiastic student, so I couldn’t pass up the whiskey tasting. I am truly glad I made sure to get in. First off, the whiskey was tasty. Laphroaig (the primary whiskey present and the sponsoring distillery) is not my first choice, but as an occasional novelty it was nice. There were two Laphroaigs (one a ten year old), both very definitely single malts, an Ardmore (also a malt I’m pretty sure), and a Kilbaggen (Irish). But the organizer, a man with the title of Master Ambassador for Laphroaig, was the real star of the event. He mixed in history, humor, tips on getting the most out of a tasting in general, and a gentle pitch for Laphroaig’s products in particular, in a half-hour stand up show in which the whiskeys were woven smoothly. Yes, the opening line of this post is from him – turns out that there is more than one way to check the flavor of whiskey. One unusual way (done by master distillers who need to check many casks in a day), is to:
1. Put your hand over the top of the glass (get a good seal)
2. Shake the glass up and down, wetting your hand
3. Place the glass down, and rapidly rub your palms together until they feel warm. This gets rid of the alcohol.
4. Cup your hands in front of your nose and take a good deep breath – mouth open.
5. IMPORTANT! Prior to operating motor vehicles, wash your hands, or you may find yourself back at the opening line, above. (Explaining that it was really a kilt, Clan Roberts IIRC, may or may not help matters.)

One more bit I found particularly amusing is that there is apparently a law in the US that barrels used to age bourbon whiskey can only be used for that purpose once. Laphroaig and other distillers in Scotland are quite pleased by this, since it creates a supply of used-once barrels which are perfect for aging Scotch (a brand-new barrel puts harsher flavors into the whiskey).

OK, two more bits. Next time you hear someone order a drink “on the rocks”, remember that the phrase had its start back in the highlands of Scotland, where the distillers ran their stills by the mountain streams. Prior to sampling the quite hot output of the stills, they would pour it over a rock pulled out of the stream to cool it. Today this has come full-circle with custom-cut “whiskey stones” which are to be kept in your freezer until use.

Everything old is new again.

Fireworks!

"Hi, my name is Gridley, and I'm a pyromaniac."

"Hi, Gridley!"

"It has been 43 hours since I last blew something up..."

"Wow!" "Good job!" "Way to go!"

This 4th, a bunch of us gathered at a friends house. Most of the guys brought fireworks of some sort. I'm still exploring the commercial fireworks idea (mostly because for all practical purposes they're only available once a year), but almost everything I'm finding out is fun. I am very glad to finally live in an area where fireworks are legal.

This year I brought a small mortar (we also had three large ones, and did some coordinated launches with the three big ones), three small multi-mortars that I believe are generally called "fountains," 18 little cardboard tanks equipped with sparklers, rocket propulsion, and small reports (in two varieties), a single-shot mortar that launched a parachutist 'army man', a 25-shot "Saturn" whistling rocket, plus some tiny boxes of smoke bombs, pop-pops, booby traps, and 'lightning flash'es. Aside from having apparently grabbed white smoke instead of colored, everything was fun. We set up a bunch of the tanks at once and had a semi-successful battle.

The weather cooperated very nicely - rain on the 3rd to soak everything down, clear on the 4th.

We were not even close to the biggest pyros in the neighborhood, much less the area - while sunset did technically occur even as late as 11PM the sky still looked like dusk. The entire valley was lit by at least a dozen major point sources. A couple of them seemed to have unlimited money, and at least one of which I'm pretty sure must have been semi-professional.

John Adams in the musical "1776" has a line: "I see fireworks... I hear the cannons roar..."

Happy Birthday, USA!

War in the Pacific: Admiral's Edition

War in the Pacific: Admiral’s Edition is a gigantic computer game – I got it for Christmas

The game covers the Pacific Theater of WWII. The game map covers about half the Earth – from the Arctic Circle to south of New Zealand and Australia, from the US Pacific Coast to the western border of India. The map is hexed-based, with hexes being 40 nautical miles across. Individual ships – including individual merchantmen, PT Boats, and major landing craft are represented. Yes, you can give orders to individual PT boats. Ground units vary in size from individual companies to corps with their subordinate components tracked at the squad level (though service and non-combat support units are somewhat abstracted). Most frightening of all, however, while air units are given orders at the squadron/group level, their component aircraft are tracked individually as are, separately, their individual pilots! The Allies will have over 100,000 aircraft available over the course of the game.

Units (ground, air, and ships) can all be damaged, and except for ships can be fatigued or suffer from low morale. All units also have skill as do, separately, their commanders. For the expenditure of ‘political points’ commanders may be reassigned. The subordinate components of each unit have their own stats, too, naturally.

Logistics? Oh yeah. In addition to moving ground and air units around, ships can carry four types of cargo: “resources” (raw materials), “oil”, “fuel” (ship fuel), and “supplies” (everything from beans, bullets, and gas to spare parts, personnel, and bombs. Some special items, such as mines, are further limited in their availability. Road and rail nets play their own part – you start wishing you had railroads everywhere.

All in all, it is truly a mega game in both scale and detail.

Orders are on the “WeGo” model: both sides (one or, unusually, both of which may be AI) give orders for the turn (which may be one or two days) then the game executes the orders without further player input. This frequently results in a desire to relieve (or, sometimes, summarily execute) subordinates. PBEM is available – and not for the faint of heart. It seems typical for the game to advance at about one game day per real day – meaning to play the entire war takes literally years.

Play vs. the AI goes rather faster – in the game I started against the Japanese AI in January I’m now up to May of 1943. The AI, as is typical, just isn’t up to human level, however, so I’m already about a year ahead of history in my counter-offensives while having suffered lighter than historical losses. I plan to play the game through to the end, however, to get a feel for the capabilities of late-war Allied units and positions.

The game is by no means perfect – one major gripe I have is that there is no way to expend the road net (several major roads such as the Alaska-Canada highway and the Burma Road thus aren’t represented at all), and the land combat/logistic engine are by a long shot the weakest link. This makes the China portion of the campaign rather frustrating (quite aside from the frustration inherent in having obsolete equipment, minimal supplies, and incompetent commanders). The Japanese player (or AI) can deviate from historical production, but the Allies can't - they get what they got.

Some of the frustrating aspects, however, give one a real appreciation for history and the problems the real commanders had. The horrifyingly ineffective early-war US torpedoes are faithfully replicated, which means that in 1942 you fire dozens of torpedoes for every hit that actually detonates.

The editor is reasonable and has a good amount of flexibility.

All in all this is one of the best computer games I’ve ever played.

From the Frontlines: Freedom Fest

This past weekend (see, I’m almost caught up!) was Naval Station Everett’s annual ‘Freedom Fest’; their public day. One of the things they do is have community groups come in and give out information and demos. One such group, naturally, being the SCA.

It is more than a little odd to do a demo of 16th century swordfighting next to an HMMWV with a ring-mounted M240 machine gun. OTOH, the picture of me, in garb, in the turret is nifty.

One of our big draws at demos is that we give children ~2 foot long ‘swords’ (glorified pool noddles), and let them do battle with similarly armed veteran SCA fighters (such as myself). The children have superior numbers, energy, and generally a complete disregard for possible injuries to themselves and/or others. We have superior skill. Impressively enough when we employ that skill, the fighting tends to be pretty even despite 2:1 or 3:1 odds. Naturally we hold back a little if for no other reason than we ARE aware that you can actually inflict an injury with a glorified pool noodle, plus we actually acknowledge the hits we take, so the kids generally win. Great fun is had by all (often including the parents), and it makes a good crowd draw, plus where else can you say you spent hours beating up little children and get away with it?

I also got to do some actual fencing with Vladimir; it seems that while I am rusty I have retained my core skills much better than I had feared.

The Navy was doing ship tours – including a pair of Oliver H. Perry class FFGs. I visited the USS Ingraham (FFG61), the last of the Perrys built. We saw the main deck, upper deck (including the bridge), hanger, and fo’c’sle. I was interested to note a hard-bound copy of Janes Fighting Ships 2011-2012 (right next to Janes Merchant Ships). They also had a plaque up commemorating the prior USS Ingraham (DD694), an Allen M. Sumner class destroyer commissioned in 1944, herself named after USS Ingraham (DD444) a Gleaves class destroyer commissioned in mid 1941 and sunk in late 1942. She, in turn, was preceded by USS Ingraham (DD111) a Wickes class destroyer commissioned in 1919 and sunk as a target in 1937. The US Navy does like reusing names. I’ve always liked the Perrys, due in no small part to their ‘balanced’ initial weapons fit which made them very useful in wargames.

It is also rather pleasant to deal with REAL security. Granted, there weren’t many Marines around (actually, I didn’t spot any for sure), but the Navy realizes that real security checkpoints have rifles, concrete barriers, and people using their brains rather than detuned metal detectors, 2oz containers of liquids, and officially sanctioned sexual assaults. I was a little surprised, noting one MA with an M4, that the Navy hasn’t made ACOGs general issue (the Marines have one on every rifle these days). I suppose on shipboard the ACOGs advantages are rather reduced, and the price tag is notable (on the same order as the rifle it is mounted on). The petty officer giving the tour was an electronics tech, so we were treated to a brief description of every antenna on the ship (OK, he probably skipped a few). I also observed that either they are making very young ensigns these days, or I am getting old.

“Old” of course coming from the man touring a missile frigate wearing clothing that last saw shipboard use when muzzle-loading cannon were the hot new concept for shipboard weapons.

From the Frontlines: Boar’s Hunt/Champions

I made a brief appearance at Boar’s Hunt, which this year was combined with Aquaterra Champions. I served as one of three judges for the three Bardic entrants. In addition to the usual songs, stories, and music, Lord Nigel did a period slight-of-hand routine; the classic cups-and-balls act is still done today.

It was quite odd to be on the other side of the judging; of course I’ve made private assessments of other bards, and passed on my share of compliments, but I’ve never done a formal judging and scoring before. I don’t know that it will make me a better bard, but it was an interesting experience, and I was flattered to be considered worthy of being a judge.

From the Frontlines: June Faire XXX

June Faire is, like Ursulmas, a regular event that is open to the public.

All through grade school and high school I did theater. Usually I was an actor, but in high school I spent a fair amount of time as stage crew. Then I went to college and my active role in theater came to a screeching halt. At Ursulmas I was asked to join a crew putting together a production of Arlecchino and the Cup of Love (a farce comedy written by a member of the SCA, set in period Verona). Doing a production as an adult is a rather different feel (especially the cast party!) from my younger years. The variation of experience in the cast is much greater – we had novices who’d never acted before, and a few who’d been acting longer than I’ve been alive.

We did an invitation-only dress rehearsal, but our real opening was at June Faire, where we did two showings on Saturday.

Performing outdoors with a jury-rigged stage is also quite different from performing in a conventional theater or auditorium. The weather demonstrated this with an assortment of conditions from bright sunshine to rain, from too warm to too cold; cast members at the first show were fanning themselves backstage, during the second three of the female members of the cast gratefully huddled under my cloak. Traffic noise from the road behind us was also an issue. The sun set during the second show, and we finished the play by the light of propane torches.

All in all the play went well, with a decent house for both shows who did quite a bit of laughing, mostly when we expected them to.

And then there was the cast party.

The director and the majority of the actors were from House Methelstede, an Aquaterra house known for its bards. Naturally, therefore, our cast party included a bardic circle. We were rolling along nicely when the camp was hailed, and half a dozen bards and minstrels, including the Bards of Key Point entered! I finally turned in, exhausted, at 3AM, and I’m told that the circle didn’t break up until sunrise. In addition to some truly awesome songs and stories I got to perform a story as proxy for another bard and found someone who knew the lyrics to a song I’d been hunting for.

Words really fail me – it was a truly amazing night.

And June Faire wasn’t over yet.

Sunday I spent most of the day with the Moneyer’s Guild, which was doing a fundraiser – selling examples of our coins. I gave the ‘making money the old-fashioned way’ spiel about two hundred times to mundanes, and the guild sold over a hundred coins (the storekeeper apparently credited my salesmanship with the bulk of the sales). I also struck my first groat – a larger coin than the usual pennies. Most importantly, however, I formally swore my apprentice oath to the Moneyer’s Guild of An Tir. Three other new apprentices were also sworn in, one of whom is almost ready to be a journeyman. For that matter I’ve completed two of the five requirements for being a journeyman (making 100 blank coins by various means and working as a two-man striking team) and am working on the third (my mon die).

A mon die is used to strike the reverse of a coin. In period this allowed the king to know who to chop body parts off of (yes, literally – the middle ages were not all chivalry and deeds of honor) if the coins turned out to have less precious metal than they were supposed to. The guild requires this to be in a 13th century English style – also known as the ‘long cross penny’ (many good images show up on a Google search). Note that unlike modern coins, the same obverse (or face) of a coin would appear with several different reverses (backs) depending on who struck them.

Supreme Court 2 - Constitution 1

Sure, I'm going to talk about Obamacare. But let's start with two other recent decisions.

First the good news: the Supreme Court does seem to have read the 4th Amendment. That protects against UNreasonable searches and seizures. Reasonable searches and seizures? No Constitutional bar exists. What defines reasonable? The court, quite properly, left that question (mostly) alone.

But the bad news begins. The 1st Amendment gets overused a lot, and abused a lot. The abuse is only going to get worse now that the court has ruled that lying about military service and decorations is protected speech. Yes folks, it is legal to lie. Politicians everywhere breathed a sigh of relief, you can be sure. This second ruling I'm rather conflicted about. On the one hand it is, just barely and strictly by the letter of the law, Constitutional. On the other... legal to lie about military service and awards for valor!?! If that's OK, little things like whether you supported issue X or voted for issue Y seem pretty trivial. Someone running for Senate can claim the Medal of Honor and 10 years in the Marines without ever having spent a day in uniform... and its legal.

And things don't stop there. The liberal media went crazy after the ruling on Obamacare, saying "See? Its a tax!" Oddly, an argument they did not make while trying to get the measure through Congress. Gee, I wonder why. But, see, we're not abusing the already tortured-to-death Commerce clause, oh no. We're just exercising our power to Tax! All is well.

Um... no. See Congress does indeed have the power to "lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises..." All well and good. But, OOPS! "...all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States."

But wait, that didn't say Taxes have to be uniform. We're still good, right?

Sure... if it were a tax. Taxes, however, go after something you HAVE. An income tax is on the money you have. A sales tax is on the product you (are about to) have. Paying a fee for NOT having something, which is what Obamacare does, ISN'T A TAX. That, my friends, is what is called a PENALTY.

The liberal media has also roundly derided the 'broccoli' idea, where someone suggested that Obamacare would be a precedent that would allow Congress to require you to eat broccoli. Well, they're half right. It isn't. What it IS, is a precedent that says Congress can make you pay money for NOT eating broccoli, or, let's get this important bit clear: not eating ENOUGH broccoli.

See, Obamacare doesn't just require you to have health insurance. No, you've got to have acceptable insurance. In other words, ENOUGH insurance. Who decides what's enough? The government. Who decides how much you pay if you don't have 'enough'? The government. Who decides what's enough broccoli? The government.

Can the government, based on the precedent of Obamacare and the supreme court ruling, fine me $1,000,000 for not having ten tons of broccoli?

Yes.

They.

Can.

All they have to do is say it is a tax. But that's OK, because lying is legal now.

From the Frontlines: Ursulmas XXX

At Ursulmas, I struck gold.

OK, I helped strike gold. A gold coin, to be precise.

Gold, unlike pewter, needs to be ‘hot struck’. This means that the metal blank needs to be heated (literally red-hot) just prior to striking. We used a three-man crew: one heating the blank (a little bit of antique gold found by a prospector with a metal detector), one holding the die ready to place it on the coin (me) and one ready to swing the hammer. We did two practice strikes on a metal called ‘merlin’s gold’ (which has very little actual gold) to get the technique right.

Why is striking gold such a big deal for a moneyer? Well, we don't get to do it much. Economics is a harsh master. Pewter, our usual medium for coins, runs around $30 a pound, give or take. Silver, the most common period metal and what we pretend our pewter actually is, runs around $30 an ounce.

Gold is currently around $50... a GRAM. That one tiny coin we struck had a metal value of several hundred dollars.

I did a whole bunch of other moneying stuff, including something new to me: making blanks by pouring pewter into round molds in order to make early-period coins. This produces a larger and rougher blank than the rolling/hammering process I’ve gotten used to, but on the plus side requires much less in the way of materials.

I danced with Emerald Rain, doing a stick dance with Misty (mock combat, each of us armed with two wooden sticks about two and a half feet long).

From the Frontlines: Good Yule / Last Hunt

Note: Good Yule / Last Hunt took place December 3rd, 2011. Yeah, I'm THAT far behind.

After six years, basically the same period of time I’ve been in the Barony, Hauk and Rosamund stepped down as Baron and Baroness. I’m sad to see them go – I felt they were very good leaders for our Barony, and their stability stands in stark contrast to the King and Queen, where we get a new one every six months. That makes it hard for me to connect with them or feel any real loyalty; I’ve gone entire reigns without even seeing the King or Queen. Luckily at the same event they were made Court Baron and Baroness by Their Majesties, so I can keep calling them “Your Excellency”.

It is an interesting insight into feudalism; my first loyalty is to Aquaterra, though I certainly consider myself a citizen of An Tir as a whole. The reverse is true of my mundane loyalties; despite being a fanatical constitutionalist, and thus highly supportive of the independent roles of the state and local governments, my first loyalty is to the United States as a whole, not Washington State and certainly not Snohomish County or the town of Lake Stevens. But in the SCA, even when I compete for An Tir against the West or some other kingdom, I’m still highly conscious that I’m doing so as a representative of Aquaterra.

I helped make a presentation to the new Baron and Baroness on behalf of the moneyers guild; scattering our off-strikes to the crowd while Raymond presented the good ones to Their Excellencies (a special minting for their ascension, many of which I’d helped strike earlier in the event).

Somewhat to my chagrin, I was awarded the Order of the Plate (the Barony’s first level Arts and Sciences award). Chagrin, because they first tried to find me to present it to in June! Apparently I’ve missed quite a few courts.

Catching Up

Yes, it has been six months since my last update, but this blog isn’t dead, it was just napping. Work continues to draw far too much of my time, but I’ve been getting to several SCA events, including some notable accomplishments. I’ll be posting the backlog over the next few days, and will try to keep a little bit better up to date going forward.