Teaching

Just a quick heads up about the coming busy week.

Time: Midnight.

As for the last several years, we're hosting a New Year's Eve Party at Two Dog Hill. And as with most things at our place, it will probably be more than a party: armor making, book research, dancing, cider racking, wine tasting, fight practicing and general craftiness are all on tap. I know for certain that siobhan_sca intends to attend for several days so we can hang a shield for her, do some instruction, figure out armor and perhaps make some gear for her. She is leaning toward Roman with lamellar. I've been thinking of the latter myself for a while. Maybe we should buy some plates ahead of that week.

I'm casting about for a party theme, as I think we have probably used up the novelty of the last two years' "Hats" theme. At the moment, I'm thinking of "Welcome to the Second Great Depression." Instead of soup kitchens, it is nursing a single cup of coffee and a worn out laptop sucking down free wifi at Panera to cruise Linkedin for job prospects. You get the idea.

Ok, not compelling. Help a guy out here!

If you have been before, you're invited again. If you think you would be welcome this time, you almost certainly are. Just let us know you would like to attend so we know how to plan. Bedrooms are first come first serve, as are the sofas.

Now that the little matter of the election is over, life, and medieval life goes on.

With Eastern Standard Time reestablished, we now move the Isenfir/UVa practice to the lower level of the Scott Stadium parking garage. Better light, protection from some of the weather, easy parking. What that location does not have is good positioning for recruitment. People don't casually walk by and discover us there. So please, tell your friends, and be sure to come yourselves!

• Kelby from Prechain has become a regular, and is discovering the wonders of a fight practice where actual teaching happens.
• Philip and Aethelwolf are reliable and a great help with the new fighters.
• I'm there every week.
• Landi has put gear on a few times and is getting more regular!
• Aloisius recently told me he wants to emphasize armored combat over rapier.
• Cartallo has made some non-commital noises that suggest we might see him now and then.
• Danny, Andrew, and Sev are all close to authorizing, and Jordan is catching up fast for only having made a few practices.

So we're definitely getting there! Even with school or life keeping Charles, Eric and Timm from fighting, this practice is definitely reaching critical mass. Maybe soon, even Karhu will armor up.

Rapier is going great too, but that's not my place to report on. But Caleb just delivered Eleanor's new helmet. Come see it!

Aside from personnel, I'm sad that it seems my idea for a polearm isn't legal. If I do understand the rules now, a laminated weapon isn't going to be very attractive in performance or appearance. Maybe I can figure out one that is. And I still have Val's Chopper....

Come on out! The weather should be good this week.

Sunday, there's some sort of sewing get together planned for at UVa. And then the Isenfir Games Tourney and Demo next week.

Seems like it has come around awfully fast, but this coming Sunday the 28th is the fourth of the month, so I'm hosting the combined Caer Glynniog/Isenfir Archery/Rapier/Armored practice/get-together/crafts afternoon.

I have a sense we'll see a larger than usual number of new people at this one, since UVa recruiting has gone really well. In particular, new interest in armored combat has almost half a dozen people starting out, wanting to make swords, looking for gear and so on. Very encouraging!

As usual, we'll go from 1 until around 6 or so. The Two Sallys have offered to cook this time.

One thing to note if you've been to these before: This time Thjora/Kit will NOT be in attendance. She's off that weekend to get some intensive rapier practice and won't be home 'til late. So sewing help will not really be available.

I hope to see Philip, Aethelwolf, Charles, Aloisius, Timm, Bubba, Landi and me in armor, with David, Danny, Andrew, Sev, Farrhan, out to learn some more stuff. How about Seamus, Karhu, Eric, Johanna? Some of the Caer Mear crew?

If you're not local but are interested in coming, let me know! Event details are available at isenfir.org

He held a lecture last night, sponsored by the Classics Society. Apparently it was the best attended lecture they've ever held.

Ancient Warfare in Modern Cinema by Professor Lendon of the History Department was quite enjoyable. He made appropriate fun of 300, Spartacus and several other movies, while using them as a jumping off point to talk about ancient warfare.

Nevertheless, I wrote this down in the midst of his talk, just after he suggested that ancient duels were short, since Homer spent little time describing the actual duels.

It is a conceit of the literary to imagine that writers are more capable of describing than people are of acting.

To suggest that people of a given time were simple only because a writer describes them simply, puts all credit on the writer and all criticism on those he writes about.

Personally, I think that the warriors Homer described (assuming they were in any sense real people) were professional men who were expert at what they did, and as capable of complex martial art as any black belt.

Imagining that people weren't smart in ancient times is a failure of imagination on the order of believing that space aliens were necessary to build the pyramids. Just because you can't figure out how to build a pyramid without a backhoe doesn't mean that our ancestors could not.

Maybe Homer didn't like, or just wasn't very good at describing one on one fights.

With the promise of good weather this Sunday, and lots of people coming over as well, I though I'd try to put an explicit emphasis on a fight practice to go along with all the creative activities planned. So, if you don't have some critical project to work on, and you want to fight, let's plan to armor up starting at 2 pm on Sunday.

For those of you who don't know, Caer Glyniog and Isenfir do a combined 4th Sunday practice and projects and food day at our place. This is the last one of the year, since the holidays interfere with the next two months.

The day kicks off proper at 1 and food is usually around 5, though we've never been short on munchies throughout the afternoon.

Rides from Charlottesville are available!

If this sounds like something you want to do, please respond so we know how to plan our afternoon. If we don't get a bunch of takers, Philip and I may just put up roof sheathing instead.

Everyone had a great time at the dance revel this Wednesday. Nice turnout, good people and lots of dancing. I took pictures.

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That's the end of the backdated entries.

Weeks later, I'm all caught up. The shoulder is better, but my back is still bothering me but finally improving. The doc says it's my sacroilac joint and gave me some steroids for it. Those have been messing with my sleep schedule, sometimes waking me up at 4 am, ready to start my day. Slightly annoying, but so far they haven't caused me to crash.

It's pretty strange to be full of energy but still have a back that won't let you do anything substantial. Though the range of motion I must avoid is pretty small– I was able to use a sledge to help take down the great room fireplace brick. I just couldn't clean fallen brick, carry buckets or haul the wheelbarrow.

I actually trashed my standard pole at Pennsic during tear down. Next year a new pole using Reynard's construction methods. No more panic when bad weather comes in!

I'm very excited about Vair & Ermine's autonomous collective now getting enthused by the idea of lots of tall war standard poles for camp. I bet we have six or more of them next year! Which also means some of us need to create war standards, not just the poles. Imagine next year, not just one pole at the front of camp, but two lanes of them all the way back.

For those of you planning your own standard, here's some info that may be helpful:

Society and Atlantia have no restrictions on the heraldic display of standards. If you want to be historically accurate for your period and station, look it up. There were no rules about it in the early 13th century that I've found, so I just use what I want.
Mine is 12' long, about 24" wide. By 15th century rules, this is the size for an emperor or an arch-duke or some such. It's made of light polycotton, and is only starting to show wear now after about ten years of use.

The "fly" of the standard is next to the pole. The badge of your kingdom goes there, unless you're the king.

The rest of the flag is a place to display your colors, badge, possibly multiple times, your motto and maybe some of your awards like Shark's Teeth, QoCs, that sort of thing. Proper display may include elements of your arms, but not your full coat of arms.
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