Arontius of Bygelswade

.....It was one crazy week at work. I'm trying to shake it out of my brain so I can concentrate on getting ready for Last Chance tomorrow and not forget anything.

.....Reminders to myself though. The things to concentrate this Fall are:
1.) Serjeantry.
2.) Ceremonies - Includes scrolls, texts, ceremonials, necklaces and catalog of all new awards.
3.) September Crown Timeline and Meeting Schedule.
4.) Silk Banners.

.....Things to remember for tomorrow:
* Wooden striker for bell.
* Tokens for Newcomers.
* All Awards: Baronial Scrolls and Promissory Certificates, Kingdom Scrolls and Necklaces, Baronial Necklaces.
* Remember ALL Kingdom Scrolls.
* Ceremonials for all awards (Caius).
* Snacks for the day (includes drinks and water).
* Contribution for Potluck.
* Go to Fred Meyers as I need some powdered protein.
* Clothes: Sandals, pants, tunic, belt & pouch, necklaces, coronet and cover.
* Baronial Cloaks.
* Someone wants to speak to me about doing something for Team Haggis III.
* Dame Ellen wants to speak about her role in Serjeantry.
* If Sir Martin attends, we want to speak with him as he works with Jahnkin. We're hoping that he'll also work with Caedmon.
* Find out what the rules are for the Baron's Horse Race?
* Tablecloth and Feast Gear.
* Bundle of Fire Wood and Fire Starter. Ask Lady Ceara about fire restrictions.
* Sign Scrolls (Ask Renart first thing if he was able to bring nib and ink. If not, run home quickly and grab).
* Sun hat.
* Dance music? Must remember to ask Madrun about the dance book.
* A flat or two of water.
* Call Gabrielle and ensure the Baronial Seal comes to the event so that THL Conchobar can take it for the box he is going to manufacture for it!!!

.....This last year we asked Adena to lower her water gathering machine a notch, namely so we didn't end the tourney season with a dozen extra flats of water. You know, that was probably not the wisest decision as we could have used those extra flats this year. Next year, when Adena rev's up her water gathering machine and rounds up her troops, I'm going to encourage her to gather all the water she can get from all the local merchants.

.....People sometimes tend to underestimate Adena, but she really is a powerhouse. A little scary. But give her a job and she'll get it done!

.....TBT are starting to find that things are getting lost in the house. We really need to dedicate one weekend to going through all the camping bins and getting organized.

.....And, once we're looking at Last Chance in the rear view mirror, we can get a little bit organized and make up a proper 'to-do' list. I'm afraid of making one at this moment as it would probably be scary long. :-)

.....The nice thing about Last Chance is that it is maybe fifty yards from the house, and maybe a half-mile to a mile to the Baronial Storage Unit. If we find that we've forgotten anything we don't have very far to travel to retrieve it. :-)

.....I should go to bed. It is 11PM. Just hope that I can shut down the conversations all going on in my head at the moment. :-)

.....Arontius.

.....It's been a while since I posted to Live Journal. It's been that busy of a Tourney Season. Definitely a Lesson Learned in how to pace ones self. Next year TBT are SSSSOOOOO going to schedule our next year a LOT better. No more of this every single weekend with the SCA.

.....Work has been a royal pain in the ass as well. We continue down the road of 'Let's make every single mistake we can possibly make in order to get this job done.' At this rate I'm not sure when we're going to get done.

.....But this weekend is Last Chance, our last outdoor event of the year. After this weekend, we'll still be busy, but the pace will ease up a bit. The current Project is currently scheduled to wrap up the first week of October. So I'm still hopeful that by this time next month I'll be catching my breath, and maybe cleaning the house. Holy Crap! The house hasn't been this bad since I was a bachelor living with four others in the Zombie Zone.

.....Even though I don't post much, I still like reading Live Journal. All of my favorite RSS Feeds are located here. I like the pace of Live Journal much more than Facebook as well. Facebook seems overwhelmingly frenetic to me. If I want frenetic all I have to do is go to an SCA event. And Live Journal is a great way to keep up with TBT. She posts some good stuff there sometimes. Even her day-to-day is good to read. Especially when I need a distraction at work. :-)

.....Just scheduled our Fall Regional Pelican Council Meeting on a telephone bridge line. Don't know if the Region will actually go for it yet, but I at least scheduled it so I had it available. Need to send some e-mails out on it and get some opinions on the idea.

.....We had our Pre-September Crown meeting in an electronic Chat Room. There were things I liked and things I really didn't like about the Chat Room meeting.

.....The Good:
* No traveling to a meeting room or space that had to be arranged. Which also means no public restaurants where your meeting competed with the general noise level of the place. And it also meant no last minute clean up sessions in order to make ones house presentable to a group of people. If I wanted, I could have sat in my underwear on the couch and sipped my favorite alcohol of choice (I know, you didn't need that visual :-)).

* No traveling means a savings on gas as well (and ferry fares, and bridge tolls and...).

* Capturing the notes for the meeting was easy. Since everything was typed into the Chat Room, I was able to capture through a cut-and-paste of the conversation. No taking of notes and interpretation of notes needed.

* Access to databases and the internet for information as needed, such as the OP and candidate Wiki Pages.

.....The Challenging:
* Everyone needs to have their own computer to be part of the conversation. We tried to have people meet at houses where one person would type for three or more people. This proved to not be a good idea. I had Cedric and Brighid at my house and was hard pressed to keep up with what they wanted to say. Not to mention that my interpretations of their longer sentences and thoughts were not always exactly what they wanted to say.

* Not everyone is a computer geek. There were people who had issues accessing the Chat Room. Which meant that some people could not join in on the conversation, and they had no help close by to get them there.

* Typing Speed. Some people are naturally fast typists, and some people not so much. Those who are slower are constantly being overtaken by those who are faster.

* Controlling the conversation. Unless harsh ground rules are set and enforced, people would continuously talk over each other. Sometimes the entire conversation would take meandering courses away from topic and it was difficult to bring it back.

* The anonymity. I've noticed that people will say things in front of a computer screen that they might not say when face-to-face with someone.

.....I'm still on the fence as to whether I would like to use a Chat Room in the future. Some of the Regional players really liked it, so I think we'll end up using it again. But I may not be a real advocate, which is why I'm holding out hope that the bridge line idea might help with some of the challenges above.

.....That's some wayward post. I think I'll quit now while I'm relatively still awake. :-)

.....Aaron / Arontius

.....I actually had a good time at Last Chance this weekend. I'd been anxious for the past couple of weeks about a.) the weather reports which became increasingly gloomy as we approached the date of the event, and b.) the site of supreme anxiety, the Uplands of Port Gamble (based on the Epically Nightmarish Swamp Faire of 2008). But the event was, in the end, a success.

.....Saturday was bright and clear, and HOT, all day long. With all the rain we had over the week, the humidity was really high, which was a little uncomfortable at times. But it was never unbearable. Certainly nothing in comparison to a hot, Georgia, afternoon. I was glad I dressed in layers though, with a light linen tunic as the bottom layer. I could lose layers as needed, and then put them back on as the evening slowly cooled down.

.....We were on site by 1000 Court. As the Heirs we were expected to sit next to Their Excellencies in Court. They warned me that the view and the 'feel' was a lot different when looking out at the Populace as opposed to being a member of the Populace and watching Court. They were definitely right. Sitting up in front there you are the focus of a lot of attention. I watched Their Excellencies to see how they did things, how they acted, and how reacted to cues from the Populace. It was interesting as I had never paid that much attention to those kinds of details in the past.

.....I definitely want to change some of the Ceremonials. I think that TBT does as well. I wrote a lot of the original wording for Their Excellencies when They first stepped up. I was somewhat proud of the words at the time. But they have not stood up well to the wear and tear of history. For one thing they are far too wordy. By the time all the words are read so much time has gone by that people get distracted. We really need to tighten things up. Their Excellencies had already started that process. But we want to convert these to an even more Anglo-Saxon feel. I'd like to also do some conversion to a style closer to a period feel. Which is problematic. If no one can understand what is being said, than they are less inclined to be interested in any part of it.

.....What would be really cool would be a conversion from the current prose to a more poetic format. It really isn't skaldic, although that style is close, but an early anglo-saxon style of poetry was really sing-song in execution. I've listened to scholastic representations of what they most likely resembled and it has a really cool sound. The only trick might be to convert modern english into that style. The nice thing is that in reality an anglo-saxon poetic scroll and ceremony might be easier for a herald to read and say than the current verbiage. We'll see what we end up producing.

.....The final Court was rather emotional. Being Their Excellencies last Baronial Court They had a lot of words They wanted to say, and tokens to give out. I only hope that TBT and I can engender the same loyalty and dedication that Their Excellencies have produced in the Populace.

.....The feast was really good. The Culinary Guild did a fantastic job with the Port and Chicken they grilled during the day. Add that to the side dishes that everyone contributed to the table and certainly no one went away hungry, that's for sure. After dinner, lots of good conversation was had, some music and revelry under the Poof-Ka (the 'Pavilion Formerly Known As'). I wish we could have stayed longer, but TBT and I were tired and wanted to make sure we could pick up Rhys and make it home while still coherent enough to drive.

.....Today went along rather nicely. We were on site by 9:30AM and the Captain-Of-The-Guard Tourney was already in full swing. It was a lot of fun to watch and the combatants were intent on doing their best. Caius finally won and anyone who took the time to watch the Tournament could not doubt their sincerity and desire to want to be Captain of TBT's Guard. TBT may have been reluctant to actually have a guard before we began this process, but watching the dedication of those vying for the Captain's position brought home the beauty of what they did. It was very cool.

.....Break-down of site started around 11AM and we were off site by Noon, which is wonderful for a Last Chance. We ran stuff to the Storage Unit, had lunch, did chores and are now getting ready for the work week. There are lots of things to think about. But right now I'm thinking of one thing at a time and doing my best to stay awake long enough to get laundry for the week. :-)

.....Need to check the 'to-do' list. The next couple of weeks are going to be busy.

.....Zzzzzzzz, Aaron / Arontius.

.....The weekend went by rather quickly. I can't believe that it is time to get ready to go back to work. I need weekends to be four days long and not two. :-)

.....Saturday was all about cleaning. After seeing TBT on the road to Dragon's Mist, I drug myself over to Mom's house. She has been so overwhelmed by keeping up on the apartment that I volunteered to help see if we could give her some breathing space. I told her I'd be at her place at 8:30AM sharp to get busy. To her credit she was there waiting.

.....Her place was a mess, so I got started right away. We captured the Laundry facilities right away and filled up all the washers. Then I cleared up the living room. By the time I picked up all the soda cans I was poking at her verbally about cleaning up and not letting the trash pile up. She didn't snap back at me and I think I finally realized that she was a little embarrassed at how messy she let the place get. She finally left me to the living room and worked on the dishes in the kitchen.

.....After two and a half hours or so I was done as far as I was going to go. But things were looking a lot better and Mom promised me she would continue to work on the place over the weekend. Although the impression she left me was that she just wanted me gone as I was starting to interfere with her Nascar Race of the day. :-) I was too tired to argue by this time and left.

.....After lunch it was time for our place. It wasn't too bad actually, mainly just maintenance. Cleaned up the kitchen and cat boxes and made sure laundry was done as much as possible.

.....Enjoyed some decadence and read for a while after that. :-)

.....When TBT made it home for the day we immediately went off for dinner at Gwen's. It was a large gathering of people who had shown up to work on tokens for Last Chance. Dinner was hamburgers and hot dogs and was tasty.

.....A new arrival to the Barony was in attendance, Jane D. She's a military traveler who recently spent a lot of time in Drachenwald. She had some great pictures of England. I especially liked the pictures of Glastonbury Abbey that the standing stones of Avebury. It made me REALLY want to go and visit England again. It is such a neat place. So full of ancient history.

.....Today was a lot slower. I was fighting off a headache most of the day. It was not BAD, but I did not feel good. Natious, headachey, and cold hands. Some classic signs of a migraine. But I seemed to miss the worst of it. I hit it hard with tylenol, caffeine and a hot shower. I'm hopeful that I will wake up in the morning without anything left of it.

.....A rather busy week. On Monday I have to run up to Lobelia after work and pick up my bag of dance stuff. I'm spelling Abbot Sion on Tuesday during Fight Practice with a couple of dances. We'll see how well they go over. I definitely want to get a Karabushka in. Also have to remember to grab Gold Key from the heated storage unit to bring with me to the Deputy Gold Key to sort.

.....Wednesday and Thursday will be about getting ready for Last Chance. I'm still on the fence about bringing Lobelia. I would like to be on site for the event, but Lobelia requires some work to get ready, bring to site, and set up for the weekend. I'm actually leaning towards just day-tripping. But we'll see. It looks like we'll be at the Feast on Saturday and it would be nice to be able to just crawl into Lobelia and go to sleep after the feast.

.....I need to get organized before I lose sight of things.

.....Aaron / Arontius.

.....We're here at Fight Practice and I'm taking notes from the meeting to discuss Last Chance Feast and Tourney. Kassian has volunteered to autocrat the event and we're brainstorming ideas on what worked and what didn't work last year.

.....The site is going to be the Silver Spurs Equestrian Center next to the Fairgrounds. It worked out as a great site last year. The unfortunate thing this year is that our preferred dates are not available on the Silver Spurs calendar. The open dates were the first and third weekends of October. The weather becomes VERY problematic as you get later into October, so we're going to push to hold Last Chance October 2nd through 4th. There is a thought that this conflicts with some other event on the calendar, but the online Kingdom Calendar shows an event at Wastekeep and a Madrone A&S Championship. So we're going to try for the first weekend of October. We'll see what kind of disruption this does to Madrone.

.....Need to check in with our current Equestrian Champion, Mistress Miranda, to see if this weekend will work for her as well as she would like to be part of the organizing group for this activity. Countess Miranda was in the loop when the date was first saved on the calendar, so now that it is being forced to be moved we will need to get her input ASAP.

.....Sorcha and Idaminious (sp?) are planning their wedding for Last Chance and have volunteered to coordinate the feast for the event. The Barony will provide the main dish and the setting (tables and chairs), and Sorcha and Company will do the actually preparation of the feast. Last year we had a roast pig and there was thought that maybe the Barony could provide a half-cow, or a sheep, this year. More to follow as the pig from last year was not universally liked.

.....Sorcha will have modern guests for the wedding, so we will use the same formula that was used for Karl Redstone's wake of several years ago in that a list of expected attendees will be provided to gate as a check list when they show up. The wedding will be timed for later in the day so as to not conflict with the event itself. Those attending the wedding will not all be in medieval garb, which is why the wedding is timed for later in the day. Those who actually want to attend the event will be asked to formally sign in at gate and pay a site fee. But those attending just for the wedding will be checked off of the list and will not be asked to pay a site fee.

.....It was mentioned that it might be a good idea to combine the Harvest Ball with Last Chance and have a dance after the feast. Those present seemed to think that this was a good idea.

.....The Arts and Sciences area will be located OUTSIDE the fence near the building this year (as opposed to inside the fence as where it was located last year).

.....It was suggested that the Baroness Tea be done again, but there was not a lot of enthusiasm for this by those present. More discussion to follow. Kassian needs to touch base with Her Excellency to get Her thoughts on the matter.

.....Last year the archery range was located at the far end of the site and it was something of a hefty walk to get from one end of the event to the other. Those present, especially His Excellency, want the actual 'EVENT' more combined, or compact, instead of spread out. A couple of placement ideas were drawn up on the dry erase board and a placement was decided.

.....The placement of Court was discussed. There was some problem with the ambiance of Court being disrupted by having a mass of plastic tables and chairs being in the middle of 'Court'. So it was decided that Court would be set up at a location separate from the actual feast area.

.....Last year, with Last Chance being the weekend after September Crown, the attendee numbers were probably a bit skewed over a typical year. This will have a bearing on the number of Portable Restrooms that are ordered for the weekend, and the number of pumpings that are required. Kassian is going to talk to Arontius and Aelianora on the side to discuss how many should be ordered.

.....Heidi of Dragon's Laire volunteered to arrange for decorations at the event. She was excited about utilizing the Baronial owned banners for enlivening the event and had a bunch of ideas about doing this.

.....Moira and Manus volunteered to be the Gate Coordinators. Kassian needs a Marketplace Coordinator. Need someone to arrange for Pied Piper activities.

.....Need someone to arrange for prizes. His Excellency reminded us that the CHAMPIONSHIPS are their own prizes and so prizes are not needed for these categories. But prizes will be needed for other activities.

.....Waterbearing was discussed. It was acknowledged that waterbearing as an office no longer exists, but it would be nice if something formal was arranged. Last year the Barony purchased a couple of cases of bottled water and left them near the erics. This worked O.K. for the fighting community, but if someone could be found who would take on organizing waterbearing activities, it would be appreciated. Kassian will scout for a volunteer.

.....Need to touch base with the Silver Spurs people on the on-site food vendors to see if they will be present.

.....Kassian will touch base with Aelianora to get a run down of expenses from Last Chance for the past several years to get an idea of what expenses to expect.

.....Last Chance is the event where the Marshallate Championships for Dragon's Laire are decided. The Heavy Fighting, Rapier Fighting, Equestrian, Archery, and Thrown Weapons Championships are decided on Saturday. On Sunday, the Captain of the Baroness' Guard is decided by Tourney.

.....Arontius needs to ensure that the date is changed on the Kingdom Calendar ASAP, and will also touch base with Tsuruko ASAP to see if there are any conflicts with other Equestrian Events on October 2nd through 4th.

.....Site walk-through will be arranged sometime in the next couple of months.

.....Kassian will put together a budget and share it with the Baronial Finance Community sometime in the next month, after discussing past expenses with Aelianora.

.....Let me know if anyone present for the meeting sees any errors or omissions in my notes.

.....Aaron / Arontius.

.....Greetings All,

.....I spent yesterday at our Dragon's Laire Last Chance Feast and Tourney. It was the second event where I had very little scheduled to do. And I still felt at least a little guilty. :-) But I did help out where I could and enjoyed my stay there.

.....I brought Mom with me. Picked her up at about 10AM, along with her scooter. Mom has trouble getting around these days. The scooter allows her mobility that she wouldn't otherwise have. But boy, is it a pain in the rear to haul around. It was good to get her out of the house though for the day. She spends way too much time at home by herself. Going to have to see if I can get her out some more.

.....We showed up on site at about 11:00 or so. Morning Court was very nearly complete. After getting Mom situated to wander the site, I put stuff away in Mistress Gwen's trailer. Then yakked with Aelianora for a short bit in the Artisan's Display. She and I discussed strategies for next June Faire (already!!! :-)). It was a good discussion. And we're good enough friends that we can argue our own personal viewpoints, no matter how opposing they are, and still be friends at the end of the conversation. :-) Actually, we're good enough friends to where we actually listen to each other, take the other's argument into consideration, and ACCEPT that they might have valuable input that would benefit the situation. Now that is the mark of a very good friendship. :-)

.....I'm feeling very good about this next June Faire Board already. When the slate was announced last Wednesday, the first thing that happened was that myself, Master Ralg and Ian MacKynnes huddled and strategized on what we saw as the major points to hit right out of the starting gate. Wow! It was a good session and gave me a very good feeling for how this next year's June Faire is going to go. There are big changes on the horizon for June Faire and we're going to have to figure out how to make them work. The town is pushing hard for pre-registration so as to have some sort of control over the people who show up, but we all know from experience (as in viewing the Egils experience) that a forced total pre-registration has its own pit-falls. We're also looking at the jurying of merchants and the movement of the Baronial Championships out of June Faire. So next year will be interesting.

.....After that lively discussion, there was another one outside concerning Her Excellency Brighid's first Sargeantry Trials. There were only a handful of people in attendance, and only a few of those thinking of actually going out for the Sargeantry. I guess I expected more for some reason. Although, to be honest, it is something that requires a good deal of commitment for about a year. Which means I should be looking at myself more critically to see if I ACTUALLY have the time. :-) But Aelianora and Ronan are going out for Sargeantry and it is always a lot more to do something like this with a group of friends with whom you can work. :-)

.....The rest of the day was spent in chatting with friends. Got to sit and visit with Mistress Gwen, Richard Dragun, Brummbar, Talia. Even Bjorn Kolbjornsson sat and talked for a while.

.....About 5PM Evening Court began and the people sitting gate at that time were wanted, so I volunteered to sit gate during that time. The first half was pretty quiet, but the second half started picking up. People started arriving for the wake of Karl Redstone. We were told that the free admittance at gate did not start until 7PM. Some people actually paid the event fee. Some people went back to their car to wait it out until 7PM. But some people were very unhappy with the 7PM rule. The embarrassing part was the fact that, to a person, the belligerent ones were all peers. Sigh! I held out until about 6:30 and then made an executive decision and opened up the memorial gate (free of charge) a bit early. :-) Talon and Janae (the Autocrats) backed that up a short time later, so I didn't feel too bad about doing that.

.....Got out of gate a little later then I thought, so when I showed up at the Feast Hall, Mom was already situated at a table. Found out a short time later that we were directly across from blondtartan and her new husband. They were married at Banner War last weekend. Another LJ User that I met for the first time in person. :-) And they are such incredibly nice people! And incredibly gracious. I was tired and forgot some feast gear and they went right ahead and offered some for our use. Wish I had been more awake. :-)

.....Mom was being a trooper, but about half way through dinner I could see that she had had enough. No complaining though. I grabbed the car and brought it down to the Feast Hall and loaded up her scooter and as soon as a clear shot opened up we had her up and into the van for the ride home. She enjoyed the event I think and is already looking forward to Twelfth Night. :-)

.....Then it was home and to bed. :-) Now it's almost time to head back out to site to get loaded up for the trip back to the storage unit. :-)

.....It was a good day. Would have been better if Laurellen had been there. I've missed her this weekend.

.....Arontius / Aaron.