Well, it has been...interesting
Aug. 4th, 2011 11:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
meirwen_1988This week has been a strange one. There has been vehicle drama (sing with me now "Dead car in the middle of the road/Dead car in the middle of the road..."), followed by less than successful rescue/salvage attempts, mechanic magic, and the final pronouncement "it could die on you in two days or go five years...it's a crapshoot." Then there was the nice collection man at the door today for one of the household bills NOT my responsibility (I do food, oil, car insurance on all three vehicles, cell phones, and the satellite TV). Since I like to bathe, and electricity is necessary to run the pump...
And then there's the packing for the yearly exercise in living in misery in order to "have fun," using some definition of "fun." There is one thing I really like to do there, now that watching the battles and tournaments is basically an exercise in enduring insult in order to experience misery, with very brief moments of actually seeing fighting. What I really enjoy is singing in the Pennsic Choir. But I haven't been able to do that lately because I haven't been able to be there for the concert dates, let alone rehearse enough. Classes can be fun, but lately the heat and humidity have really wiped me out to the point that the last thing I want to do is be trapped in a hot, humid tent, whose walls have clearly been mildewed (hello asthma!), with 20-40 other hot, sweaty people, at least half of whom seem to spend their time trying to one-up the instructor. Look, I'm the first to admit that sometimes the teacher doesn't really know what he or she is talking about. In that case, be polite, ask questions, and don't be a smart ass. And, frankly, if the "one-uppers" would shut up long enough, they'd find that most of the teachers, even if they get some things wrong, really have things of value to share. But, no, there's this real tendency for some people to use the classes as a way to try to prove that they should have more letters after their names than they do, and this is their venue to prove it. Look--we all know that the average IQ in the SCA is way above "norm" (someone even did the research). But it is also true that the social IQ quotient is probably below. One of our claims to fame is that we can "socialize" people so that they are no longer shunned as rude and boorish. Please, stop proving both stereotypes.
So tomorrow I leave for Pennsic. Gear is packed, food prepped (oops--need to make my lunch for the 8 hours on the road). Time to go to bed.
All of which is my long way of saying I'll be gone for a bit. I'm taking an Elizabeth Chadwick novel with me (though I may cheat and continue reading A Dance With Dragons on my iPhone). I'll be back with tales of handfastings, and 50th birthday parties, and well-deserved peerages, and probably a bit too much alcohol, and the inevitable fat-laden food.
As Garrison Keeler would say, "Be well, do good work, and keep in touch."
And then there's the packing for the yearly exercise in living in misery in order to "have fun," using some definition of "fun." There is one thing I really like to do there, now that watching the battles and tournaments is basically an exercise in enduring insult in order to experience misery, with very brief moments of actually seeing fighting. What I really enjoy is singing in the Pennsic Choir. But I haven't been able to do that lately because I haven't been able to be there for the concert dates, let alone rehearse enough. Classes can be fun, but lately the heat and humidity have really wiped me out to the point that the last thing I want to do is be trapped in a hot, humid tent, whose walls have clearly been mildewed (hello asthma!), with 20-40 other hot, sweaty people, at least half of whom seem to spend their time trying to one-up the instructor. Look, I'm the first to admit that sometimes the teacher doesn't really know what he or she is talking about. In that case, be polite, ask questions, and don't be a smart ass. And, frankly, if the "one-uppers" would shut up long enough, they'd find that most of the teachers, even if they get some things wrong, really have things of value to share. But, no, there's this real tendency for some people to use the classes as a way to try to prove that they should have more letters after their names than they do, and this is their venue to prove it. Look--we all know that the average IQ in the SCA is way above "norm" (someone even did the research). But it is also true that the social IQ quotient is probably below. One of our claims to fame is that we can "socialize" people so that they are no longer shunned as rude and boorish. Please, stop proving both stereotypes.
So tomorrow I leave for Pennsic. Gear is packed, food prepped (oops--need to make my lunch for the 8 hours on the road). Time to go to bed.
All of which is my long way of saying I'll be gone for a bit. I'm taking an Elizabeth Chadwick novel with me (though I may cheat and continue reading A Dance With Dragons on my iPhone). I'll be back with tales of handfastings, and 50th birthday parties, and well-deserved peerages, and probably a bit too much alcohol, and the inevitable fat-laden food.
As Garrison Keeler would say, "Be well, do good work, and keep in touch."
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no subject
Date: 2011-08-05 04:24 am (UTC)The ninjersamuraibarbarianwarriorgod types are harmless. It's the semi literate who read a book and can now show you how English is an imperfect medium for the transmission of physical doom and smiting crowd that makes me cringe and thank god for health insurance.
no subject
Date: 2011-08-05 11:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-05 11:55 pm (UTC)Dyfan
no subject
Date: 2011-08-07 08:22 pm (UTC)I loved SCA because of your group; and I loved the myriad of creative, musical, and artistic endeavors to be found there. I also saw a darker side of it, though, and I wasn't fond of that. I think it's part of why I never tied to attend SCA things when we moved. For me, all the best parts of the SCA centered around the Caer.