Sunday, March 30, 2008
Rhetorical Question?
What is it about this mad, mad hobby of mine that after a demanding week which has shaken every facet of my mundane life, I can spend a physically, emotionally, and spiritually grueling weekend helping my beloved Shire host an event, yet, now that I am warm, dry, and have my children safely home, I can say with all sincerity that this has been one of my best weekends in months? Oh, I do so love my friends...
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Resumed!
Yesterday's Statistics exam awaits my professor's red pen, and I have caught up somewhat on neglected sleep and housework, so blogging can now resume. I do not flatter myself to think I am one of the cool kids, but I did miss posting.
Seamas has gained some noteriety with the Librarian's Challenge. We have received comments from four kingdoms now, which is truly flattering. He has been working on updating SCAdia this past week; I expect him to release the update soon.
Last weekend, I photographed some of the softball games at my company's family picnic. Though I usually do not engage in much action photography, I am very pleased with how most of the photos turned out. I am even more pleased with people's reactions after I posted the slideshow on our server. For example, I overheard one of my co-workers talking on the telephone about the slideshow that afternoon. She was telling the person on the other end to look at specific slides and was talking about what was going on at the time each photo was taken. A truly positive experience, and I find myself looking forward to next year's games.
So life returns to normal for a few weeks - until my next exam!
Seamas has gained some noteriety with the Librarian's Challenge. We have received comments from four kingdoms now, which is truly flattering. He has been working on updating SCAdia this past week; I expect him to release the update soon.
Last weekend, I photographed some of the softball games at my company's family picnic. Though I usually do not engage in much action photography, I am very pleased with how most of the photos turned out. I am even more pleased with people's reactions after I posted the slideshow on our server. For example, I overheard one of my co-workers talking on the telephone about the slideshow that afternoon. She was telling the person on the other end to look at specific slides and was talking about what was going on at the time each photo was taken. A truly positive experience, and I find myself looking forward to next year's games.
So life returns to normal for a few weeks - until my next exam!
Monday, September 17, 2007
Ramble Pause
Gentle Reader, I beg your indulgance for a few days. As many of you know, I am pursuing a Master's degree and am taking a statistics course this semester. Saturday is our first exam, and I must therefore focus my attention in that direction for a few more days. The recent flurry of posts will soon resume...!
Monday, September 10, 2007
Quest XII Denizen Instructions
In Smythkepe's quests, the "denizens" are the people playing roles (parts). In order to make sure each denizen understood what was going on in the Quest and what his or her particular role was to be, we gave each a page of General Notes (which applied to all the denizens) and a page of specific notes for his or her own station. This year, we used the camp's "Fort" (Seamas called it a "Palisade") to set up a small town.
The theme of this year's MSKD was the Siege of Malta. Most activities for the entire weekend was broken into Ottoman vs Maltese, with War Points awarded for the victorious. Even Quest was worth a War Point, so Seamas and I worked the theme into this year's design.
First, the General Notes:
GENERAL NOTES FOR TOWNSPEOPLE
The teams of questers entering the town are escaped prisoners of war. There are Maltese teams escaped from the besieging Turns, and there are Ottoman teams escaped from the defending Knights. They do not know which forces control this stretch of coastline or this small town.
Frankly, neither do you!
The Turks are at the end of their resources, and will break off the siege in just a week, on September 8th - but of course you don't know that today. Although your town is obviously Christian, you should avoid offending Ottoman visitors until you are certain that the town will not be shortly invested or occupied by Turkish forces. (Just for safety's sake, the taverns have sold out of anything alcoholic.)
The town itself is a small coastal outpost with a lighthouse. The west side of town is the seafront side. The town guard has been sent out to patrol the roads, leaving the town defenseless. Hurrah!
[Seamas drew a marvelously scaled map here, which I am unable to reproduce as of this writing.]
Miscellaneous notes:
The theme of this year's MSKD was the Siege of Malta. Most activities for the entire weekend was broken into Ottoman vs Maltese, with War Points awarded for the victorious. Even Quest was worth a War Point, so Seamas and I worked the theme into this year's design.
First, the General Notes:
GENERAL NOTES FOR TOWNSPEOPLE
The teams of questers entering the town are escaped prisoners of war. There are Maltese teams escaped from the besieging Turns, and there are Ottoman teams escaped from the defending Knights. They do not know which forces control this stretch of coastline or this small town.
Frankly, neither do you!
The Turks are at the end of their resources, and will break off the siege in just a week, on September 8th - but of course you don't know that today. Although your town is obviously Christian, you should avoid offending Ottoman visitors until you are certain that the town will not be shortly invested or occupied by Turkish forces. (Just for safety's sake, the taverns have sold out of anything alcoholic.)
The town itself is a small coastal outpost with a lighthouse. The west side of town is the seafront side. The town guard has been sent out to patrol the roads, leaving the town defenseless. Hurrah!
[Seamas drew a marvelously scaled map here, which I am unable to reproduce as of this writing.]
Miscellaneous notes:
- Please don't help the questers solve any of the puzzles or quizzes.
- Moira calls her tavern the "Sable Falcon" but everybody else calls it the "Black Bird."
- The lighthouse also holds the town library (although few people can read).
Sunday, September 09, 2007
Friday, September 07, 2007
Librarian's Occupations Quiz - Part 1
Tonight, Seamas put the Librarian's Occupations list into a format that lets a person input their answers and then see their scores. Unfortunately, we weren't able to get the code to work on Blogger. Tomorrow, he will work on adding the quiz to his own site, SCAdia.
Thursday, September 06, 2007
Orange Omlette for Harlots and Ruffians
Have you ever eaten a meal that was so well prepared you simply couldn't express yourself through words? I had the good fortune at MSKD last weekend to sit at the feast table served by one of the Seige Cooking competition teams. We were, in no uncertain terms, well fed both in quantity and quality of food. (Truly, I did not eat again until after 2PM the next day.) Afterward, I could find no better way to express how much I enjoyed the meal than to hug the team captain!
This was one of the dishes we were served. In my own interpretation (read "guess") that I cooked for dinner Tuesday night, I used 2 Tbs orange juice, and 1 tsp honey for each 2 eggs. Not quite the same as her proportions, but pretty close. More importantly, my children (including the finicky eater) loved it and have asked that I make it again this weekend. Yippee!
This was one of the dishes we were served. In my own interpretation (read "guess") that I cooked for dinner Tuesday night, I used 2 Tbs orange juice, and 1 tsp honey for each 2 eggs. Not quite the same as her proportions, but pretty close. More importantly, my children (including the finicky eater) loved it and have asked that I make it again this weekend. Yippee!
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