How To

To calm Isabel and hopefully not annoy Thjora, I thought I'd mention that my Pennsic prep has gone pretty smoothly. Last night I painted the gold onto the Best Shield in the World, and also finished covering the cute little heavy T6 shield blank Alan gave me. (Don't be too shocked: First, it is the heaviest piece of T6 I've ever seen, and second, it is probably just going to be a loaner.) Philip was over this weekend and used his amazing helicopter repair skills to properly re-fiberglas the Best Shield. Here's a pic of it after repair and before recovering.

This shield is two years old. I'd thought it was three. But in any case, it has proven to be remarkably durable. Yes, I wish its shape was slightly different, and I wish it was slightly smaller. Those are my errors, not Reynard's! He does amazing work, and I hope I'll always be fighting with one of his shields. Rigid shields have spoiled me. When I had to use my old aluminum one this past spring, I hated it. So wobbly when it gets hit.

Tonight, hopefully Lewis is coming over to help with reapplication of the crows, and I'll get the green chief painted.

Perhaps we'll debate what to paint on the new little T6er too. Otherwise, things remaining undone that must be done before we leave:

1. Tie new loops for the tent. No biggie.
2. Paint war standard poles. An hour or so.
3. Old Camail attached to Phrygian Helm. Could wait 'til the war.
4. Reattach camail to demi-helm. Ditto.
5. Print out SCA biz cards for Thjora and me. Done shortly. Yay for a slack job.
6. Shopping, because Thjora has enough to do.
7. Put some plants in the ground.
8. Air in the cart tires.
9. Pack

It Will Be Done.

Perhaps one of these would be better in the Great Pumpkin II?

Cool Tool: Aladdin Lamps

If Thjora likes them, I might get one for our tent. Or considering last night's power outage, for around the house!

Technorati Tags: Pennsic, SCA, Survival, tools

But here's some voter guidance!

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VeganYumYum » Knit Night Cupcakes
via Boing Boing, the bestest web site in the world.

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  Here's Max helping to show off my new find, an "Orka" brand dog toy that may serve well as a cross guard or mace head. This is the largest size they make. It cost $12 at Target.  As made, its openings are too small to fit legal rattan through.    However, cutting off about half an inch of an end, there's now a 1 1/4" hole all the way through to the other end, which also needs to be cut off. First I used a pocket knife to make the initial cut, then I used leather shears which worked even better. After that I remembered I have a band saw, and used that for the second cut. The rubber tries to bind the blade, but that's the best way to cut it. Just go slow.    This is as far down the rattan as I could get it without some sort of lubricant, at least with any hope of getting it off again. It is  quite snug but I think a bit of water will allow me to move it where I want. Placed here, it really makes me want to hit something with it. But these points are way too stiff to use as is for a striking surface.  My initial plan is to use them as cross guards at the bottom of the blade.  I'll have this ready to try for Tournament of Chivalry this weekend. Hey I just found that Amazon sells these cheaper than Target or PetSmart.  That link takes you to the thrusting tip.   This one takes you to the cross guard/mace head.

This is something Thjora discovered at Target. It's a dog toy but makes a great butt spike thrusting tip. It has a bit of heft to it, folds over without pinching, and probably works really well to move shield edges and such around. Roland, the Atlantian Earl Marshal, has approved this for use.

I attached mine with contact cement.

A visit to my local target today proved fruitless. While Thjora got them for about $4 each, that was apparently the sale price on the pink ones. At PetSmart today, I paid $12 for one. Which is still a deal compared to the SCA specific molded thrusting tips.

I also picked up another dog toy that looks like a giant blue rubber caltrop, which I plan to mount as an X bar crossguard if I can make it fit. No pictures of that yet.

Hey I just found that Amazon sells these cheaper than Target or PetSmart.

More pictures of the thrusting tip below.

I find myself puzzled about how to open up the text of the Quest for Venus (so named by Minerva/Roisin, the quest formerly known as Coronation Quest) so those who might want to run it can see how we did it.

On the one hand, I am a big Creative Commons, Share-Alike kinda guy. Note that everything on this site of mine is CC licensed. Sharing the quest with everyone is my ultimate goal. It was one of the points in moving it off of the technically inferior, locked up yahoo group where the planning started.

On the other hand, I don't want to make it impossible for some crazy masochist in another kingdom to take this work and use it to actually run the quest for his kingdom. If it is wide-open available on the web, then there's no way to make sure the potential questers aren't already familiar with what is required for the quest.

Of course, no re-running of the Quest for Venus will be the same, if only because no other site will have all the same amenities and layout. Nor would the personalities involved as staff be the same. But it is hard for me to imagine any quest team reading the 50 pages we have here and still being able to compete fairly in another running of the Quest for Venus. It is a mystery, after all.

So how should I put it out? Merely as an example, rather than as source material, or held more closely so only potential organizers can access it?

Technorati Tags: Creative Commons, SCA

A story

9 written clues--apparently these were really hard. Not the intent! My testers didn't think so.

quest badge design
a 55" by 38" map
staff map
hundreds of labels
2 processional staffs
metal caduceus decoration
1 two-pronged polearm
A center grip shield
3 foam hydra heads
1 Mercury Helmet
1 chin strap for a loaned helmet
2 roman-ish knight's belts
1 sculpey vulture sculpture
6 minotaur livers with maps on them

From xkcd.com, one of my favorite web comics. And a pretty spooky coincidence too, since this is the comic he just published today.

I'm trying to do more exercise and may re-join the UVa gym.
Good article here about what kinds of exercises to avoid.
Most interesting: Sit ups are bad for you and inefficient ways to build ab muscle. Do bike crunches instead!