Spring is in the Air

Ah, Spring. That magical time of year when a young man's thoughts turn to... allergies. Between the damned weather changing every 12 hours and the explosion of pollen that's saturating the atmosphere, I'm having serious respiratory distress. Is it too much to ask to be able to take a deep breath? I mean, I like breathing. It's gotten to be a habit with me. But sometimes Nature has other ideas. This is why we need to abandon our primitive little homeworld and build orbital space habitats. We can come down and visit our Mother Earth for vacations, but the rest of the time we could live in glorious, air-purified artificiality that was perfectly suited to our environmental comfort zones. Wouldn't that be lovely?

It's Not Easy Being Green...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVO8Wfa6Lrw

The above is a video of the infamous Green Streaker that went careening through the Rapier Ravine Battle at Gulf Wars '08. Fortunately, he waited until we were in the middle of a hold, or he may have come out with a few more orifices than he went in with. Although you can't see me in the video, I was within about 15' of his flight path. I can honestly say "No shit, there I was!".

March the Heroes Home

We have returned from Gulf Wars, where Meridies put in a very good showing on both the rapier and heavy fields. We are tired, sore, sunburned... and elated. More important than the (sometimes stunning) victories on the fighting field, was the true sense of camaraderie that was there in abundance. It was good to see all of our friends that live too far away for us to visit regularly and meet new friends that share our love for our chosen hobby. I'll post some (hopefully interesting) war stories and maybe some pics later, but right now I'm still a bit strung out from it all.

Off to WAR!!

It's 6:55am. Do you know where your rapiers are? We do. Packed in the back of our van along with everything else we are taking to Gulf Wars. This is it, boys! This is War! Wish us luck. We're outta here!

Ashes to Ashes, Rust to Rust

Entropy. It is a basic reality that effects all things in this dirty little universe we live in. Sooner or later, all things spiral down into decay and vanish. We fight it every day in ourselves and with our possessions. The past few days I've been busily sanding the rust and nicks from our swords and daggers in preparation for Gulf Wars. Such drudgerous activity is mindless and yet leads to a profound question. Why do things like rust exist? Why do our bodies weaken and fail with time? Why is the universe set up to fail? We live in a disposable reality of constant struggle that will inevitably end in death and decay. And yet we are hard-wired to fight against this slow degradation. We repair and we maintain, we exercise and eat right in a vain attempt to stave off that most implacable of foes, Entropy. Is this world a punishment? Are we banished here for the duration of our physical lives from some other realm where all is youthful beauty and indestructable artifacts? What crime could we commit in such a realm to be placed here? Or is it more a matter of contrast? That we need Entropy in order to appreciate things like a shiny new sword or a pretty, fresh-faced maiden? Would a perfect world not be terribly stagnant? As the villian, Syndrome, said in The Incredibles, "Everyone will be Super. And when everyone is Super... nobody will be!"

I'd like to think that it's the latter, actually. That perfect realm exists, but to properly appreciate it, we have to take sabbaticals to this reality. When we get bored and restless in our eternal perfection, we go "slumming" in this flawed and messy existence for a while. Then we'll go back to our true home with a renewed ability to really enjoy it. In the meantime, rust is the enemy and sandpaper is our weapon of choice to defeat it. By the time the weekend is through, Entropy will be beaten back and our blades will flash in the sun like they were from that perfect realm. And when I slip out of the wet, itchy skin of life again, I'll seriously appreciate not having to work so damned hard to make them that way.

R.I.P., Gary Gygax

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080304/ap_en_ot/obit_gygax

The world is a lesser place today. It is the end of an era.

The Business of War

Gulf Wars, a major SCA event, is just around the corner. Our preparations have eaten up a lot of our time over the past couple weeks. As the General for the Rapier Militia of Meridies, I have a lot of responsibilities, but even without that, it takes a lot of prep to go to War. We will be camping for five days in Southern Mississippi with several thousand other people. There will be more fighting than you can shake a sword at. Getting all our gear ready for this endeavor has been our primary focus lately.

Aside from that, we've also taken the fairly major step of creating our own Rapier Company. The Company of the Ravens of the Sun, it is called. Ysabel and I are Co-Captains and we've each taken students to begin filling in the ranks of the Company. She chose Rhys Faber, of our home Shire and I chose Jack Marvell, of Thor's Mountain. Both show great promise as fighters and I know they will be assets to the Company. We are allied with La Compania de Halcon and together we form a larger force called simply La Gran Compania. Our blades shall rain terror down upon the enemies of Meridies! And then we'll go back to camp and have a beer (or a nice cup of mead, I never really liked beer).