The Revolution Will Be Outsourced

Tiny pink paper

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 20:46:24 GMT

This tiny pink paper is folded in half. It's a letter from my half-sister (the only of my siblings who knows who I am.)

It's been sitting on my desk for about half an hour now.

I haven't read it yet.

11th Doctor

Sun, 04 Jan 2009 00:01:29 GMT

There is Only one thing that could possibly be important enough for me to post after more than a year of silence in my own journal.

The next doctor will be....

To all my friends, wherever you are...

Mon, 24 Dec 2007 18:07:54 GMT

If I had to have one wish for all of you, the ones I love best in this world...It'd be this:

Have yourself a merry little Christmas,
Let your heart be light
From now on,
our troubles will be out of sight

Have yourself a merry little Christmas,
Make the Yule-tide gay,
From now on,
our troubles will be miles away.

Here we are as in olden days,
Happy golden days of yore.
Faithful friends who are dear to us
Gather near to us once more.

Through the years
We all will be together,
If the Fates allow
Hang a shining star upon the highest bough.
And have yourself A merry little Christmas now.

Merry Christmas, friends. May the holiday be as good to you, as you've all been to me.

Justin/Robert

Post Birthday

Sun, 18 Nov 2007 18:56:52 GMT

Vaguely hungover, content. Eithni and PJ and Angie and Wren and Sara and I went out bowling last night and then to Sig's bar and then home. It was a lot of fun. Mateo gave me a call about noon to wish me a happy birthday, DreadEX wished me happy birthday in her LJ, and Marina sent me a birthday email.

Thank you everyone, my life is definately richer for my friends. ^_^

Who is The Doctor?

Fri, 02 Nov 2007 15:55:07 GMT

So, I was skimming through the Doctor Who wiki, trying to stem some boredom of the evening when I came upon the episode listings. "Brilliant," I thought. "I'll have a look, and torture myself a bit with the titles.

That's when I came upon this: Time Crash

And now I can't wait for my birthday. I was able to get last year's Children in Need episode from my torrent site. Now I'll be positively STALKING this one.

We all just wanna be big rockstars

Mon, 29 Oct 2007 06:31:22 GMT

Well, the doors are closed, the place is silent, Andrew's gone, Bob's out of here on Wednesday, and I'm not far behind. The resort has the feeling of a great creature settling back and taking a deep breath of relieved stress. The last nights of festivies was had among many friends. It would be poetic to say there was a tinge of sadness over Andrew's going away party, but there wasn't. Over all, everyone was in high spirits, and happy for him. A bit of overindulgence happened that night, I was a bit headachy for fencing the next day, but the huge group of SCA folks gathered adn how could I refuse. The evening costume party began with me feeling a bit weary of the whole season, but the evening grew to be enormously fun. This summer was a new and interesting experience. I'm looking forward to my next summer on the resort, but I'm a bit relieved I won't be the fryer again. Not really sure where I was going with this at this point. That's alright. the season was fun, the season is done, on to ...ugh...winter. >.>

Sat, 20 Oct 2007 08:50:57 GMT

Wow. All over the globe, thousands of fan fic writers and shippers just punched the air.

Dramatic Reveal

Another Author down...

Mon, 17 Sep 2007 19:08:28 GMT

So..I never read his work, but Robert Jordan has apparently passed away. Sorry to those of you who enjoyed his work and were awaiting his final novel of the Wheel of Time

This isn't really supposed to make sense to anyone but me.

Fri, 10 Aug 2007 07:22:00 GMT

You know...sometimes..without trying...you just look the part.

The Red String of Fate

Tue, 07 Aug 2007 06:56:25 GMT

This is going to be a bit of a rambling entry, bear with me.

Nothing is worse than a bunch of nervous energy at 1:45 in the morning. I have no desire to sleep, no desire to deal with drunks in the bar past what it takes to get me my wandering drink, and no desire to sit and stare at the lake in the dark.

I've tried all these things so far.

So, now I'll try thinking. Buddhism has a concept of something that the japanese have grabbed onto very strongly, and has been cropping up in my mind for the last several days. The belief is a rather romantic one, and somewhat out of character for me after all these years. The concept goes that two people destined to be together are joined at the left pinky finger by a red string. Their destinies are joined.

So...What of all the little loves in between? Are these just little tangles in the millions and millions of strings as you gently pull your way towards that person on the other end of your string? Are they more accurately the people we bump into as we pull ourselves along, floating through life?

It's been a bit of a pensive evening for me. I'm not sure why. I've had the same play list of 14 songs running over and over again for hours. It's a rather eclectic mix of Eminem's rap music and japanese pop with a dash of Jonathon Coulton for good measure. I've got one or two things on the burner, so to speak, that are not coming to a boil as quickly as I like, so I have all this energy and nothing to do with it. I find myself skimming back over old journal entries, mine and some of my friends, and growing nostalgic. I almost never do this. I very rarely look back at what I and others have done, very rarely walk down the road I've walked down before. Oh, sure, I'll revisit memories when I tell a story, but I rarely sink myself into my past.

Bah. maybe I'm just getting old.

Yellow dots

Tue, 07 Aug 2007 04:28:08 GMT

So many people on tonight, but not the one person I want to....need to...talk to.

I read a quiz, then I stoleded it.

Thu, 02 Aug 2007 07:21:15 GMT

1. Mundane Name:
Justin Flatt

2. Mundane Job:
Student, Chef's assistant

3. Persona name:
Lord Robert Talbot

4. How did you come up with your name?
Roberts have always been my friends and heros in life. Talbot came from Anne Rice books. It was a happy coincidence that both of them are readily documentable

5. What is your Knowne World location?
Montello (Madison), Wi.

6. What is your persona?
16th century english; The son of a midwife and an apothecary, Robert went to the Church at a young age. Somewhat disillusioned with the way God was handled in 16th century england, Robert left the seminary, and signed on with Capt. Michael St. Christian as chaplain of the Star Dogg'd Moon.

7. What kingdom do you consider to be your home?
Northshield

8. How long have you played?
11 years

9. How did you get started?
A friend in high school, having heard of my love for the local renaissance faire, introduced me.

10. Why did you join?
Because I didn't have to wait a year to attend events (I went to the faire every summer, but nothing all winter long) and I got to DO stuff. Like fight.

11. Have you registered a name?
Yep, signed, sealed, and just like it says above. Robert Talbot.

12. Have you registered a device?
Yep, canted and all (that's a play on heraldic terms in regards to the name and the device matching somehow. It's considered very neat, or so I'm told.)

13. What awards have you been granted? In what kingdom did you receive these awards?
AOA from the Middle, Queens glove, King and Queens Cyphers from Northshield, Baronial fighting award from Windhaven, Order of the Golden scalse from Jararvellir. Also held the Princess' Sleeve for Her (Then) Stellar Highness, Aesa Gilsdottir.

14. How many events do you attend each year?
Depends. Usually between 8 and 10 with 1 or 2 of those being out of kingdom wars.

15. What is the best event you have ever been to?
Gulf Wars!

16. What is the worst event you have ever been to?
The bitter bitter cold year at Gulf.

17. What event do you make it to every year?
Gulf Wars

18. What event do you refuse to go to?
I don't think there is really one I refuse to go to..Just some with lower priorities.

19. Who is your favorite person to hang at an event with?
All of them. Everyone I go with.

20. What activities do you participate in?
rapier fighting, getting into heavy fighting, sewing.

21. What activity would you like to learn?
I've got a deep dark fascination with archery.

22. Are you a marshal?
Oh, yes.

23. How many tents have you had destroyed at events?
....Mine or others?

24. Has your garb ever caught on fire?
....No...But I do look hot in it. >.>

25. Have you ever woke up in a strange person's tent?
Just my own.

26. Do you have a pavilion?
Kinda. It's a canvas cabin tent. It's...pavilion flavoured

27. Are you a peer?
No

28. Do you ever want to be a peer?
Yes, but probably not the way as is suitable for civil conversation in the SCA at the current time and climate.

29. Is it a coincidence that peer rhymes with beer?
yes

30. Are you a squire, apprentice or protegee?
no

31. Who would you like to be squired, apprenticed or protegee'd to?
Oh, my, the soap box that goes on with this and number 28. For the sake of argument, I'd love to be squired to Siegfried.

32. What is your war cry?
Click, Click, BOOM! (Also MOO! BOOM!) (Also the howling of the Hounds of Hell)

33. Have you ever been pulled off of the field for your safety?
no

34. What is the funniest thing that has ever happened to you in armor?

35. Have you read copora?
Cor-wha? Oooh..the really long thing that legalizes even while it tenderizes...no, no I haven't read that.

36. Circlets, how do you feel?
I have one, I don't typically wear it. A man is as good as his actions, not the trappings he wears.

37. What household(s) do you belong to?
Niether of these are households, but I'm a member of the Black Isle Academy of Defense, as well as The Hellhounds. I suppose the closest we get to a household is the Ship, the Star Dogg'd Moon.

38. If you could change one thing about the SCA what would it be?
drama and people who ruin the game

39. What is your favorite part of the SCA?
That golden moment when you look around a campfire that's engrossed in a song we all love and you realize that "Yes. This is the family I would choose. This is my home."

40. What is your SCA Goal for the next 7 years?
I dunno? King? Sure, why not, let's shoot high. King. >.>

The Boy Who Lived

Sat, 21 Jul 2007 20:24:48 GMT

I'm a third of the way through that damn thing already and I have no clue at all what's going to happen. I only know what Already HAS happened...

As though. Like I'm going to tell you any spoilers. I will regal you with the new spell that I created in PJ's bar... It's a pouring motion with your wand and then a flick. The incantation is "INEBRIO." Enjoy. Use as you will. Give credit if you want.

And just incase you read the spoilers and got this far... Obliviate!

^_^

WW redux

Wed, 11 Jul 2007 17:28:47 GMT

So, as a week's gone by now since the start of this tale, And 3 full days since I arrived home at the end of it, I suppose I should write a little bit about this years Warriors and Warlords.

Working at a resort, I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to get all the time off for it I wanted, but I did, and after waiting for the mail to arrive on thursday, fencingkitty and I got on the road in the late afternoon. The drive was uneventful, and not even particularly hot, except that we had to go about 13 miles out of our way to get the supplies for the weekend.

The site was large, expansive and pretty much what everyone's already said it was. Also, it was wonderful. I'm one of those people who don't mind having to move my chair around to find the shade. I survived Pennsic's Serengeti for a week, I certainly survived the wide open plains of WW for 4 days.

Friday was My Day(tm) I woke up, tottered down to the field too late to stop Dirk (I'm not spelling it the way he does, it's like...welsh or something..) from walking all over the poor kids in the walk the plank tourney. He's very much a strip fighter and that game was tailored to him. I understand he got 53 kills. However, what followed that was mateobard's unscarved tourney. It was a pretty good set up, 3 pools headed up by 2 dons and a warder, out of which came 1 candidate each for Mateo's 3 virtues (Prowess, Courtesy, and Joi de Vivre). I showed well in that first part, and was selected as something of a wild card from my pool. The second part was a Gates of Valhalla pool, wherein a circle of combatants turn and face each other, acknowledge someone and fight the first person that acknowledges them in return. You're cast out of valhalla when you lose, only to reenter when the person that killed you is killed.

This was run as part of the baroness' whim a couple of years ago and it was great fun. Additionally I had wicked flashbacks towards the end of it. The first one I was in had Warder Gallien, Warder Tristan and myself in the final and Gallien and I double killed which left Tristan the victor. This time around it was Roland, Miguel and I and thankfully doublekills were refought once. In the end, I stood victorious over the Mad Cardinal and the Foreign Visitor.

Which means a song! Yay! And I didn't have to get drunk to do it!

...however I made a good go of it that night. The plan was easy, and good. I had an empty bottle of tattoo and a full bottle of tattoo. I poured half of the full bottle of tattoo into the empty bottle of tattoo and topped them both off with sprite. Then I went out carousing. Talked with Ahlwin a bit up at the Torchlight tourney, finished off my one bottle and sent devikat back to camp for my second one. Then we wandered down to the Gray Fox party for a bit. It is here that my troubles began. I finished off my second bottle of tattoo (Read: One Full bottle in me) And I wandered up to the bar with my empty bottle intent on getting another drink. Arnora, being up-til-now a good wingman came with me. I set the bottle down on the bar and the conversation went like this:

BartenderButNotReally: "What can I get for you?"
Robert: "Got any Captain Morgan's Tattoo?"
BartenderButNotReally: "I have regular Captain's, is that okay?"
Robert: "Sure, why not. Give me a Captains and Clear."
Let me break here briefly to explain that a captains and clear in MY bar is a captains and clear soda.
BartenderButNotReally: {Insert words that I didn't hear because I was drunk and focused on my conversation with Arnora}
Robert: "Yeah, that's fine, captains and clear."

So I take my bottle of captains and clear and over the course of the next..maybe...30 minutes...I start to get REALLY REALLY drunk. Like disproportionate to what I'm drinking, or rather what I believe to be drinking. Thankfully eithni found me and got me home.

Here's where The Valuable Lesson comes in. Have a good wingman, nay..a GREAT wingman. Arnora still needs some teaching. KNOW YOUR BARTENDER...failing that...WATCH YOUR BARTENDER MAKE YOUR DRINK!

Apparently at that bar captains and clear didn't mean Captains and clear soda as it does in the bar here at the Estate....but, in fact, captains and EVERCLEAR. Yes, that's right kids...I put down a quarter of a liter of captains and everclear.

So, one might think "Oh dear lord, the HANGOVER that man must have had.." Heh. One might think that. But would I be the cadet of Michael St. Christian if I went out that way? No, of course not, and here then, oh you princes of men, is the conclusion to this sorry tale.

9 AM saturday, I wake up still drunk. Stumble to the necessary, then to the cooler to acquire 2 bottled water and some food. Down I sit for about 2 hours and nurse my way right out of drunk into stone cold sober. No headache, no vomitting (apart from the initial the night before. That probably saved me...like..literally.) Nothing. It took a bit of motivation to get into armor and up to the field because I more like passed out the night before, I didn't fall properly asleep, but I was cognescent enough to go to the Duel At Dawn tourney and go toe to toe with Dirk.

Saturday night I swore off the sauce and played wingman instead, getting a very inebriated Arnora a better drink and then a bit of a hangover cure. And then there was packing up on sunday which was BLOODY HOT and driving home.

It was very very fun, from start to finish. I had a great time, I have a great story and really...you can't ask for more than that.

Before The Doctor...

Wed, 13 Jun 2007 03:29:00 GMT

There was The Wizard. Mr. Wizard.

He's gone now..

Well done, Mr. Wizard. And thanks for all the science.

For fans of the Doctor

Tue, 12 Jun 2007 06:20:53 GMT

Take: 1 tall Tom Collin's glass (you know, the frosted looking ones.)
Add: Ice
Add: Vodka
Add: Orange Juice
Add: RedBull
Add: Splash of Grenadine

Because everyone looks at a screwdriver and says "This could be a little more sonic."

Yes, tonight in a lull, Michael, Mateo, Leona and I created and tested The Sonic Screwdriver.

This summer's going to be fantastic.

Everyone's doin' it...

Thu, 24 May 2007 06:00:59 GMT

Your Score: Neutral-Evil

30% Good, 60% Chaotic

Plane of Existence: The Gray Waste, "Hades". Description: Here, all emotion and compassion is drained away, until only hopelessnes, selfishness and apathy remain.

Examples of Neutral-Evils (Ethically Neutral, Morally Evil)

Hojo (FFVII)

Sauron

Long John Silver

Stalin (revolutionary/governor)

Puts self-interest before all else. Will only cooperate when material rewards are high. Untrustworthy; has contempt or fear for all others. The ultimate motive is self-preservation and promotion of their schemes. There are no barriers to their actions. Amoral.

Will not necessarily keep their word

Would attack an unarmed foe

Will use poisons

Will not help those in need

May work with others

Indifferent to higher authority

Indifferent to organizations

Neutral Evil "Pure Evil"

"Malefactor"

A neutral evil [person] does whatever she can get away with. She is out for herself, pure and simple. She sheds no tears for those she kills, whether for profit, sport, or convenience. She has no love of order and holds no illusion that following laws, traditions, or codes would make her any better or more noble. On the other hand, she doesn't have the restless nature or love of conflict that a chaotic evil villain has.

A thief and a mercenary is an example of a Neutral Evil [person].

Some neutral evil villains hold up evil as an ideal, committing evil for its own sake. Most often, such villains are devoted to evil deities or secret societies.

Neutral evil is pure pragmatism without honor and without variation - survival of the fittest.

Other Alignments and Tendencies (Tendenices are what you would more often sway towards; esp. for Neutrals):

0-39% Good, 0-39% Chaotic: Lawful-Evil
0-39% Good, 61-100% Chaotic: Chaotic-Evil

40-60% Good, 0-39% Chaotic: Lawful-Neutral

40-60% Good, 40-60% Chaotic: True Neutral

40-60% Good, 61-100% Chaotic: Chaotic-Neutral

61-100% Good, 0-39% Chaotic: Lawful-Good

61-100% Good, 40-60% Chaotic: Neutral-Good

61-100% Good, 61-100% Chaotic: Chaotic-Good

Link: The Alignment Test written by xan81 on OkCupid, home of the The Dating Persona Test

I'm a sheep..and I haven't posted in a while

Sat, 19 May 2007 05:33:57 GMT

1. Where is your cell phone?
Pocket

2. Relationship?
Deeply

3. Your hair?
Stylish

4. Work?
Kitchen

5. Your sister?
Unknown

6. Your favorite thing?
Money.

7. Your dream last night?
Nonexistant

8. Your favorite drink?
Tattoo

9. Your dream car?
PJ's

10. The room you're in?
Used

11. Your shoes?
Floor

12. Your fears?
Loneliness.

13. What do you want to be in 10 years?
Graduated..>.>

14. Who did you hang out with this weekend?
Don's

15. What you're not good at?
Humility

16. Muffin?
Chocolate

17. One of your wish list items?
Money.

18. Where you grew up?
Neenah

19. The last thing you did?
Drove

20. What are you wearing?
Hawaiian

21. What aren't you wearing?
Shoes

22. Your pet
kitties

23. Your computer?
Powerhouse

24. Your life?
Average

26. Missing?
Some

27. What are you thinking about right now?
Booze

28. Your car?
Loud

29. Your kitchen?
packed

30. Your summer?
Hopeful

31. Your favorite color?
rainbow

32. When is the last time you laughed?
recently

34. School?
Perpetually

35. Love?
Abundant.

The internets

Fri, 20 Apr 2007 04:27:56 GMT

The internet makes people a little too accessible when a girl I dated in my freshman year of highschool managed to find me on Myspace. I haven't spoken to her in years, for christ sake.

The internets is a scary scary place.

Tue, 17 Apr 2007 07:36:48 GMT

This is the best...thing...EVAR!

http://www.nandahome.com/

"Why is your alarm clock running away?"

"Well..if you woke me up, wouldn't you?"

For all my geeky oldschool gamer homies

Sun, 15 Apr 2007 18:12:49 GMT

This is awesome. Clicking on the picture in the article gets you a larger version of the picture with better detail.

http://www.soe.ucsc.edu/~inio/dk/

Todd Goldman (Goliath) is a douche

Fri, 13 Apr 2007 13:37:02 GMT

Yeah. I said it. The "Boys are dumb, throw rocks at them." guy's a douche. like with a contoured head and everything.

Here's why..

Now..the comic that Mr. Goldman stole some of the artwork from is a crass one trick pony. But the artist who draws that comic is an incredibly talented artist. Also, stealing is wrong. Mr. Goldman believes that he can get away with hoisting a 5 year old image from a defunct webcomic and no one will notice. Mr. Goldman is sadly mistaken.

Dear Todd~
We're pissed.
hugs and kisses,
The Internet.

Attenion:

Wed, 11 Apr 2007 19:20:56 GMT

To all my buds who have an affection for a certain Browncoat Captain, it would seem that the actor has gotten himself into a new series on Fox. http://fox.com/drive/

It looks somewhat interesting. I'd watch the premiere just because I like the guy that plays Mal Reynolds.

Update

Mon, 09 Apr 2007 18:49:18 GMT

Okay, to keep everyone posted on what's going on in my life, though most of you know this, here's the plan for the upcoming months. April - mid may: finish up semester, sara graduates. mid may - june: Pack up the rest of the apartment, get stuff that needs to go to storage to storage, stuff that needs to go to Madison to Madison and stuff that needs to go Montello to Montello.

Wait, what? Madison..montello? Packing??

Okay, let me explain...wait, there is too much..let me sum up. Sara will be moving into Eithni's House for Wayward Girls at the end of the semester, after she graduates. This will afford her a nice, affordable place to stay while she's waiting for me and finding a job. Which is great for her.

I looked around the apartment one day, and realized a couple of things. It's expensive, and it's lonely with only one person. So I turned to the one person I knew that could remedy both of those things.

So, my things are packing up and going to Montello, where I'll be working and living at the resort this summer. Yay! I'm excited, it should be fun. Bob and Mary are in the upstairs apartment with me, as well as some gal I have no idea of. Her name is Heather, I think she's one of the bartenders.

So. In this event, I have items that belong to people. Teff, I have found your 3 musketeers video. Oddly enough it was where it belonged, with the other videos. O_o. Blues brothers may or may not have been with it, I'll check the box that shelf got packed into.

Mike and Hedder. I've got your copy of silent hill(I really tried playing it a couple times..I don't think I'm cut out for that series), and your volume of pictures from gulf wars. I think that's all I had. I'll box it and ship it before we move completely. Probably sometime towards june. I'll need the new address again, the email got trashed along the way. BTW, do you still have that pair of black dress shoes I left when we were down there? They were Bostonians.

Jess we've got your firefly. It's either coming with me to montello or going to Madison with Sara. We'll figure out how to get it to you. We all suck at trading stuff off at war.

Also as a note to myself, I have Ulrich's historical sword play book. I'll likely see him this summer, or during ARRG.

If anyone can think of anything else that we may have of theirs, let me know. Chances are if you haven't bugged me about it, we both forgot, I'll run across it while packing and go "Holy shit, I have this." ...like with Guillame's costuming book that got packed in a closet for two years...>.>

Honestly, I'm not irresponsible. It's just been a gorram busy couple of years.

Anyway, Let me know.

Cheers.

War Redux

Tue, 20 Mar 2007 19:53:06 GMT

hm...No clean clothes..no room in the car....a distinct lack of food in the house...did I just get back from war?

Must have done. Sweet. That means I have stories.

So, it was a fast trip down, thanks to the fact that we had 6 people in 2 cars in our caravan. That had to be the smartest move we've done in years.

So, this year drinking started out before we even got to site, thanks to Michael's need for mojito's (MO-JI-TOOOO!) on the way down. He bought a couple bottles of mix somewhere in Missouri and the 3 that weren't driving had mojitos on the way down...piss me off. >.> But the drive down was good, and we had a minimum of stops, getting there at about 3am local time. We immediately curled up for a little nappy nap.

Troll was more or less well run this year. Seems like they've been trying to streamline this troll process for 16 years now and they still haven't gotten it quite right. But, we trolled in just fine and we headed for our campsite to set up our little compound at the tip of the point. There was moving of the porto-johns involved....I went on a town run with Aesa and Eithni and Sari. It took an hour or two and we came back to find the camp already getting a good drunk on.

At some point we had more porto-let mischief, wherein Michael locked Rigo in the portolet, and a kind soul let Rigo out. Now...Here was the logic, in Rigo's mind. "Whoever locked me into it must be the one that's letting me out." Here's Michael's logic. "I locked him in there, he's going to be pissed, I'm sure as hell not letting him out." Now here was the thought of some nice passerby. "Hey, someone's playing a trick on this poor guy...he sounds familiar...I think I'll let him out."

So the good Samaritan lets the good Baron out of the closet of blue death. The good Baron then had a logical quandry. "This person let me out. He must be the guy that locked me in. But I know this guy, typically he's more subtle. I'll hedge my bets." And Rigo peed on the good Samaritan. And by "Good Samaritan" I mean Cam. So, there stands Cam, just let Rigo out of the john out of the goodness of his heart and got..uhm..marked...for his troubles. Cam looks at him and says "This isn't over! But I have to go change clothes."

So, that became a theme for the week.

We had a bit of first night of war syndrome. Luckily there wasn't much going on, so for all the drinking we did, we made very little asses of ourselves.

Monday was more of the same, sleeping in a bit, puttering around camp, there was another town run for some more booze because it was clear that the rest of the week would see us being incredible drunkards.

I caroused with Cam a bit, leading that group with him. That was fun. Nothing quite like being socially dominant. He brought along this guy Alex..This cat had a tough war. He was absolutely clueless as to the how's, why's and where's of our group. He was hitting on Arnora, which i thought was patently hilarious. So I leaned over to Cam and said, "Hey. Wanna see me be the biggest cockblock in the universe?"

Now, Cam is usually a good voice of experience, he's a lot like Jock. But at this point he saw the humor in what I was about to do and said, "Yeah, show us how that's done." Now, let me give a little background on this. Alex is a Rocheforte who thinks he's D'Artagnan. So, he was having problems all night with the social dynamics and such. So when a real Musketeer (to continue the metaphor) steps in, he's got no chance. I swept in front of them and did this deep bow, took Arnora's hand right out of his and said, "My Lady, allow me to conduct you to our friends." And with a smile from her, I took her over to where Michael and Leona and a couple of other people were standing. It was classic. I could hear Cam snickering behind me.

That evening rapidly deteriorated after a certain point. I ended up throwing him out of camp. not quite bodily.

The next day was amusing. Rigo got this great idea, and Michael and I rolled with it. We grab the shovel we brought and rolled into Cam's camp. We asked after Alex and he brought himself rather shakily to us. (He was hung over, we were lily fresh as if we'd never drank the copius amounts of booze the night before.) Rigo stood the shovel up next to him as Michael and I stood there, marked off on the shovel how tall his neck was and began digging. The camp cracked up. He apologized and pretty much knew his place the rest of war.

Tuesday was Goldschlaeger night. As typical I didn't bust out the gold flecked bottle, I've sworn off of it. but I did take the tattoo bottle and mix it up with a little clear and drank that all night. That was beautiful. We started at the Gleann Abhann social. This is where it crystalized for me that I was actually more socially adept than I had been in previous years. I conducted her Excellency Joscelyn over to Cam's kids to introduce them, and I drew in a couple of stragglers having a conversation. One of those stragglers was one John Billenger, White Scarf of Trimaris.

...John and I have a history.

One that he apparently didn't remember. So what did I do? I told one of the most embarassing stories I could recall about him. Yeah...So, when I was done with that, we wandered over to the Hafla, where I had my own little corner of glee while everyone else made noise across the room from me. Then the lights went out and I have no idea where was what after that...>.> We ended up at the Green Dragon Inn, and then to bed. Which is just as well..2/3rds of a bottle of tattoo is probably enough for me.

Wednesday...Let's see..what was wednesday...Oh, yes, opening ceremonies. I was asked to carry a banner for that. Pretty neat, actually, it was the second time I've been in opening ceremonies, the first I carried a banner for Lars and Mary.

Wednesday also ended up being camp night. Mateo came by and sang, it rained that night. I made an early night of it, because of the fact that I had the Rose Tourney the next day. Speaking of which, the rose tourney went well, it was guts, I made it two rounds in. The guy I lost to took 4th and should probably be a don by now. Again, made it sort of an early night because of the rapier ravine battle as well as a shift retaining.

My retaining went well. Ziggy was very low maintenance. It's easy to retain for a king who's taking a nap..>.> Leona was on Her Majesty, during the Champions tourney, which Trimaris and her allies won.

The ravine battle was awesome. last year Ansteorra and her allies outnumbered us 3 to 1. There was no way we would have been able to throw people at their lines fast enough to kill 3 ranks and still have people there for when the push hit again. This year the numbers were within 10 of each other. They never stood a chance. we took back the ravine with all 3 flags again. At one point the left flank folded, and 2 of the 3 flags were captured, but a massive push recaptured them when all of northshield's forces hit the front line at once, and just wiped them clean. After that resounding victory, their majesties offered us one more honor. They rose one of us to the Nobility. Don Mateo became Baron Mateo. The coronet is absolutely gorgeous.

After that, what else could seal the end of our war? Well...Our allies won the champions battle. We won the ravine...well, we'd won the majority of the rapier war points...What could be better..

How about sweeping the board for warpoints, and making history on the field, again. Yes, the morning dawned cold and gray for the rapier field battle, with our general giving us a grim warning that we may very well be out numbered. Which didn't particularly worry us. We'd taken the field last year with the 3 to 1 odds that had beaten us in the ravine. This year was no different. 2 up saw 2 down as Trimaris and her allies swept the field clean of the Ansteorrans, and swept the board clean of rapier points, a feat never done by Trimaris and her allies before. People who few doubted would get one kill found the reserves of prowess to sweep several of the enemy from the line. I myself saw a line crumple before me as Wilhelm of the School of Tyranny and I decimated our adversaries before us. Leona stood shoulder to shoulder with Count Raito and crippled the enemy army. It was wonderful.

Saturday afternoon and evening saw us packing and saying goodbye to the early leavers, and breaking down our own camp in favor of a warm bed in the royalty cabins...Our King and Queen are good to us.

Sunday saw the last of the packing, the last hugs to those we'd be leaving behind and a quiet sigh as we rolled out of site.

Another war done. Another war won.

Next year isn't coming fast enough.