There is something magic about knocking on someone’s door, they answer not knowing who it is, and then the smile on their face as they hear the singing and call over others in the house to listen.

In college, our SCA group used to carol across the Cornell campus, singing several more period pieces (even in Latin and German)

Every year, I tell myself that I need to start doing it again. I’ve tried to push the Iron Bog caroling, but realized that I should be doing it with my family as well.

Well, this year it’s going to change. We’re going to go, and I would *love* to have your voices be heard alongside ours. Just a few hours out of your weekend to put smiles on your face and those of others.

That was part of an email I sent to friends a few weeks ago. Yesterday we were able to bring it all together. Now, my original vision of going door to door with candles was thrown for a loop with the bad weather yesterday. My rain date was also up against something else, and I *really* didn’t want to miss out on going, especially since I had several responses.

So we went with Plan B. That consisted of me tracking down a nursing home or assisted living location that would welcome us on short notice. Luckily, I found one not far from us in Deptford. I sent out an email early in the day to let folks know not to get nervous with the rain.

Overall, it went really well. We had 8 adults and 8 children, though only 2 of the kids actually joined in the singing.

Our music was holiday and seasonally inspired. Since almost half of the singers were Jewish, we want to make sure to not be overly Christian in our song choices, while at the same time including some Chanukah songs (which are really hard to find sheet music for, btw)

We wind up singing to a group of about 15-20 older women (and a few men), plus the staff. It was great to watch them sing along and smile in recognition as we worked through the songs.

It was actually more difficult to do it this way. Had we gone from house to house, we would have had breathers between songs. We could also have repeated the ones everyone knew really well, or tended to get the best reception. In this case, we just worked through the handout I’d given everyone. We sang for about 45 minutes.

Afterwards we returned to my house for cookies, hot cider, hot chocolate, and “Jewish death bread” (with clotted cream of course). Those celebrating Chanukah light their Menorah and exchanged gifts. The kids watched the classics of Rudolph and Frosty on DVD.

Thank you everyone who came and joined us. It was a wonderful evening, and hope the resident’s smiles stay with you throughout the season.

Here was our final set list of songs (* = actually sung):

The Twelve Days of Christmas *

Good King Wenceslas

Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer *

Toyland

My Favorite Things *

Jingle Bells *

Let it Snow *

Over the River *

Jingle Bell Rock *

Carol of the Bells

The Holly and the Ivy

Deck the Halls *

Frosty The Snowman *

Winter Wonderland *
O Chanukah, O Chanukah *

Dreidel, Dreidel *

Oh Christmas Tree

Here we come a-caroling

We Wish You a Merry Christmas *

The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire) *

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

We Need a Little Christmas

Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree *

Santa Claus is Coming to Town

Up on the Housetop

The Night Before Christmas

Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Sleigh Ride *

Mele Kalikimaka

Hey Ho Nobody Home (shortened verses)

Boar’s Head Carol

For a while now, I’ve been planning on developing a road rally/puzzle rally for my friends and extended friends. Finally, I’m pulling it together.

There are a couple of different kinds of road rallies. They go by different names and variations, but these are the core ideas

One is known as a TSD (time/speed/distance).  In this kind of rally, a team (typically two people -a driver and a navigator) is given a set of route directions to follow, and the speeds at which they should travel the route. The route will generally consist of rural and quieter back roads. The goal of a TSD Road Rally is to travel the correct route at the correct speeds, and arrive at “checkpoints’” precisely on time. You are scored on how closely to the correct time you arrive. A Road Rally is not a race, and no rally will ever require you to drive in a reckless or illegal fashion. Arriving too early at a checkpoint hurts your score, as does arriving too late.

The second is a puzzle rally. In this case, a team is given a set of clues and puzzles which will lead them from one location to another. At each location they must answer questions to earn points and then end in a final destination.

This kind of rally can easily be explained by this clip from Midnight Madness. More details can be found at nayrium.com. Their second video link isn’t working correctly, so I’ve copied both videos here for review.

Explanation:

Example clue solving:

My plan is to combine the best of both. I’m going to have puzzles as well as driving clues.

When I was about 10 years old, my mom used to participate in, and design road rallys, that were hybrids as well. I was always too young to participate (as they wound up at bars in the end), but I’ve always wanted to do it myself.

My rally will be family friendly. The end location will be a place we can all hang out at and enjoy ourselves and eat and drink.

I’ll need to pick a weekend that is free from SCA events and (hopefully) on an odd week to make it accessible to my law enforcement friends.

This is the kind of thing where you enjoy the company of your team while you are solving. Enjoy the drive and the competition against the other teams. Then, kick back, relax, and tell stories of getting lost etc. at the restaurant.

I’m going to design and put together the whole thing and then send out some invitations. I really hope to get a good group of folks together, as these are really alot of fun, so I encourage you to invite your friends along as well. I’ll just need to get a final RSVP count of teams so I know how many packets to put together. My goal is have this ready by the end of the year, but we’ll see how that fits into the schedule.

Technorati Tags: road rally, midnight madness, puzzle, fun

Are the monsters themselves Kosher? Any article with a picture of a Jackalope is sure to get my attention.. and now I know that my fear of them being eaten to (recorded) extinction by hungry Jews is unfounded.

You should note that the flash animation training link that she posted was done by me. /me does a little jig.

I’ve been talking it up and hoping to get some of you involved. Now might be a great opportunity.

You don’t have to know anything.
You don’t have to bring anything.
Just show up, alone or with everyone you know.

And prepare to have an amazing adventure as you learn how to play The Lost Sport of Olympia.

Playing the lost sport is pretty much the most fun I’ve ever had. That’s all you need to know. But if want to know more, some FAQ are below.

FAQ

Q: What’s the Lost Sport of Olympia?
A: According to legend, this blindfolded sport was played and then banned by the ancient Greeks, who attempted to destroy all evidence that the game ever existed. It was completely forgotten by history — until 2008. That’s when a small online community began investigating the lost sport. The community got bigger and bigger, and recently they actually pieced together the rules of the game — simply by analyzing clues found in ancient artifacts. They’re still working out some of the kinks of the game, but so far, lost sport training events have have happened all over the world, from Canada to Brazil to Spain to New Zealand!

Q: Is the lost sport hard to play?
A: Like any great game, it’s incredibly easy to learn and extremely challenging to master. But, you don’t need to be traditionally athletic to excel at this sport. Instead, you’ll need trust, courage, memory, and teamwork.

Q: Is it fun to play?
A: I’ve only played it once before, but it was unforgettably awesome. You will almost certainly laugh until it hurts. Watch this recent training video from some aspiring Lost Sport champions in Kitchener, Ontario — my favorite part is the referee yelling repeatedly (to no avail), “No laughing! No laughing!”

Q: So can I just show up, or do I have to learn how to play it first?

A: Just show up! You don’t need to know anything about it, just show up. Your friends don’t need to know anything about it either, so bring them. Plenty of people there will be able to explain it, but most of the people who show up will also be playing the lost sport for the very first time.

Q: How’s it work, exactly?
A: It’s a blindfolded team sport, with 1 runner and 10 – 100 teammates who form a human labyrinth around the runner. Just like the Minotaur, the runner must escape from the center of the labyrinth as fast as possible!
Runners can’t see, and they can’t use their hands to feel their way. So they must draw on courage, their spatial memory of the labyrinth pattern, and the sound of the walls humming to guide them.
Meanwhile, the walls run ahead of the runner to keep him or her safely penned in at all times. It’s total collaboration. (The walls and the runner are on the same team.)

You can catch on faster by watching this flash animation of the gameplay.

Q: What’s the legend, exactly?
A: If you’ve never heard of the Lost Sport, you can learn about it in this podcast about ancient mysteries and forgotten secrets of the Ancient Games.

This weekend was K&Q Fencing champions in Panther Vale (White River Junction, VT). The executive summary is that many of us from the local area headed up to the tournament and it was ultimately won by Lord Griffith, our new King’s Champion. The Queen’s Champion was announced as Don Collin Monro. That means that both the King’s and Queen’s Champion are part of our household, the Tadcaster Militia. Way to go us!

I’m sure others will astound you with tales of our travels and other events and fighting throughout the day. Instead, I’m going to write about a personal decision I made, how it affected my fencing career and why I made it. Saturday, after going 10-1, and having an opportunity to fight in the finals, I withdrew from the tournament.

When I started getting really serious about SCA fencing in college, I added K&Q fencing champions to my list of ‘must attend events’. I don’t have very many of those, because you have to be fluid with your SCA event scheduling and conflicts. The fencing championship, however, was set apart as something I always wanted to attend. It was a culmination of the previous years’ hard work. It was a way to test my skills and training against others from around the kingdom. It was the premiere fencing event of the kingdom, and if you were serious about progressing as a fencer, it is the kind of event that you shouldn’t miss.

Even if I had no hope of actually winning, I continued to enter. My first years I didn’t even make it out of my early elimination rounds. As I got better, my records started shifting into the positive win percentages and I started advancing further and further. Then I started making the top 16 fairly consistently, and a few times even further than that. As I became a teacher and an OGR, I always encouraged all the fencers in my area to attend K&Q if at all possible. I felt that they experience they gained was very important to them.

Consequently, I don’t remember the last time I missed a K&Q fencing championship. When the event is announced each year, there isn’t a question of “am I going to go”, but “what plans do we need to make to get there”. Sometimes its local and easy, sometimes its far away (a la Canada) and harder to deal with. But come hell or high water, it’s very important to me to enter.

I had the single best day of fencing so far in 18 years on Saturday. I was spot on, going 6-1 in my round robin and then winning my next four bouts in the single elimination portion of the day. I entered the tournament for the same reason I had entered every year in the past. There was always the desire to see yourself go as far as possible, and however small the hope, the desire to actually win the tournament. Yet, as every K&Q tournament in the past had proven, I hadn’t actually been able to win. The competition was always better than me. They always capitalized on my mistakes or I didn’t do enough to take advantage of theirs.

I certainly didn’t expect to win, yet I entered and gave it the same 110% I always gave it. Things fell in line for me, and next thing I knew I had made it into the top three. The tournament was designed as a single elimination until the finals, but because of the distribution of bouts, we ended up with an odd number at the end, and were going to have to fight in a round robin style.

Reality was staring me in the face. Here I was, within arms reach of obtaining a goal I had set for myself years and years ago. It was what I wanted.

Or was it?

It’s 2008. Alot has changed in the years since I first set that goal. Most important to me is that I am now a father and I have 2.5 year old twins. I’ve made a commitment to my family that I want to be there for them and to help raise them. My wife has also taken on the responsibility of being the Kingdom Exchequer. This is a huge responsibility and directs impacts the ability of others to enjoy and play this game. It always requires alot of time and huge commitment from her. So much so, that when she first took the position, we had a long discussion about how it would impact our lives. We talked it over Baron Larry and Baroness Katherine. Having both been in the position of being a kingdom officer and parent, they had insight into the possibility of conflicts. Ultimately, we decided that we could make things work if we agreed to adjust our schedules accordingly.

Over the last two years, I’ve made many sacrifices to my fencing/sca career because of being a father and husband to a kingdom officer. I’ve skipped events I might normally have attended, I’ve not entered tournaments I may normally have entered, I’ve left events early. Yet, I made those choices willingly and I do not regret them. We’ve done our best to try and juggle everything. Would I have liked to enter more tournaments at Pennsic? Absolutely! Am I happy that I was only able to enter the more important war points? Yes. The flipside would have been not to be able to play at all. I’m happy taking ‘some’ rather than ‘none’. This won’t always be the case. My children won’t always need as much attention. My wife won’t always be a Kingdom Officer (or so help me…). Time will pass.

Now, here I was, with the chance to actually become a King’s Champion, and took a look at the commitments I had already made in my life. Did I really need to add another one? How would the new commitments being a King’s Champion impact those already made? I would want to be the best Champion possible and I didn’t feel that I could be.

So, I decided that I would withdraw from the tournament, rather than risk the chance that I might succeed at my goal. This had the side benefit of allowing the other two combatants to fight in the format originally intended. I let a few people know that I had made that decision, and then went ahead with it. They each knew how tough it was for me, yet they each knew why I was making the choice. Once again, Baroness Katherine was one of those who knew of my decision and supported it, as she had done with Molly and I over a year ago when Molly started his new office.

What’s funny is that while the decision to follow through had to be made in a moment, it was one that I had actually made several weeks before. Remember that I said there was always the “small hope that I might actually win” each time I entered? Well, even with a small hope, you should prepare for the “what if”. I knew that if I actually got into this position, that I wouldn’t be able to complete it — I just never thought I would actually get there. It mulled around in my subconscious. I even dreamed about it (funny thing, that..). I told Collin about the dream on the way up to the event. Though in the dream it was me and Don Caine in the finals, and I bowed out because he had beaten in my our pre-Iron Teapot challenge this past year. Collin told me I’d be crazy to give up like that when I was so close – especially against Caine. It really didn’t matter.. I wouldn’t actually *get* to that position to have to worry about it.

I went before Queen, pledging my sword in service to the Crown, while explaining that prior commitments would prevent me from being the Champion that I wanted to be. She accepted my pledge and my resignation, and (as a parent) said that she understood.

Don Alexandre, who was making all the tournament announcements, asked if he should say why I withdrew. I had no problem with that. It wasn’t something I was ashamed of, and others had a right to know. So, he let the crowd know that we would be proceeding with only two fighters and that I had withdrawn for “familial commitments”.

I was content. I had no stress. All the adrenaline was gone and I relaxed. I took off my armor and watched the rest of the finals. Several people came up and asked me what happened and I explained. Each of them seemed to understand why I made the choice that I did.

Then, a bit later. Something strange happened. It was brought to my attention that what I did could be considered tacky. Why would I even enter the tournament in the first place, if I didn’t want to win it. How about the possibility that I offended the crown with my actions. This wasn’t a single sentiment, but one shared by several people. What about all the people who didn’t have the chance to advance because of the impact I had on the tournament?

My world turned upside down. I started questioning the choices that I had made and got very upset that I had, in fact, offended people. I stood firm on the reasons why I did what I did, but inside… down deep… for the first time… I began to feel that I was wrong.

I ran the scenarios through my head and tracked down others that were in the semi and quarter finals with me to discuss my decisions. I went to talk to the Queen, to get confirmation that I didn’t offend her, and that it was never my intent. She’s a strong woman, and very confidently told me that if I offended her, she would let me know.

It’s not easy meeting your friends in competition. One of the best fights I had all day was with one of my best friends Steve. We’ve trained together, laughed together, cried together. He was the best man at my wedding. Yet, because of my actions, when we met in the semi finals, I won and eliminated him. Later, in the quarterfinals, I eliminated another friend, fierce competitor, and former King’s Champion JP. We’ve always had great bouts over the years and regularly take turns killing each other.

As I fought them, though, it never bothered me that they were eliminated. We shook hands before the fight. We shook hands after the fight. I had set the same goals that they had. I had the same obstacles set before me. Yet, for this day, I had overcome those obstacles while they had not. That’s the nature of competition.

Now, though, I needed to go to each of them and discuss my withdraw and how it affected them. I had never thought I would have needed to. But, if I offended some people, then I could certainly have offended them and it needed to be reconciled.

For the rest of the day, I found my justifying my choices to those around me. I sought out those I needed to have discussions with. I reached out for support and understanding among those who I knew I would find it in. I talked at the event, in the car, at dinner, the next day. It continued to haunt me.

Here’s what I came up with as a result of those discussions:

I did the right thing.

Don Ian was instrumental in helping me express in words some of the feelings I was having. He’s been there. He knows what it was like. I hope he doesn’t mind me saying this, but he entered several K&Q tournaments knowing his own commitments would keep him from winning. He had “the speech” prepared, but never had the need to actually say it. Once, he was one fight away from being in that position, and then lost. He told me that he didn’t know how he would done it, but knew that he needed to — and that he knew how hard it was for me.

I didn’t enter the tournament for the purpose of eliminating others. While that has certainly been a practice in such big heavy weapons tournaments such as Crown. That wasn’t my intent. I entered for my own goals, not to stop the goals of others.

He also let me know that my presence in the tournament made it a better one. I agree. Being the King’s Champion means that you beat the best. Sure, people can play the “what if” game all day long. What if I wasn’t there? What if so-n-so beat so-n-so? What if someone got hurt, or showed up and entered when they weren’t expected? What if that person didn’t have the face the destructive bye, or if the tree of pairings aligned differently?

I may not have been there in the end, but at each point in the journey, I was there. I was an obstacle to overcome. If it wasn’t me, it would have been someone else. Would you have won? Maybe. Would you have lost? Maybe. You can’t predict the possible future, though it’s often easier to play the what if game after you see the outcome.

Jean later quoted our guilty pleasure movie Bring it On to me and said that “If you want to be the best you have to have the best”. The cheerleaders had the opportunity to win the National championships, but they knew that their best competition couldn’t be there and that they wouldn’t have to face them. Does that really make them the best? Did they really rise to the occasion and prove it? They went so far as to try and get the other team there just so that they would have to face them. Ultimately they did. And they lost. But they were all the better for it.

Baroness Katherine told me, “It doesn’t have be all or none”. I don’t have to give up everything in order to be a family man with SCA commitments. I can take what I get, and portions there of. I shouldn’t prevent myself from enjoying what’s made available to me. I should enter a tournament if I can, rather than avoiding it altogether because of a small chance of a conflict.

Will I have the opportunity to fight in K&Q again? Absolutely. Will all my stars be in alignment and give me the opportunity to reach my goal sometime in the future? Who knows. I certainly want to believe that while I get older I can still compete competitively. Even if it never does. Even if I get injured. Even if I just happened to be at the pinnacle of my skills this year.

It doesn’t matter. You need to live for the here and now. You have to live with the choices you make. You need to be happy with those choices and stop second guessing yourself or you’re going to be be very unhappy. Doubts are ok, but ultimately you need to support your own decision and stand firm with it.

I had my doubts, but I’ve also reached my decision and I stand by it.

I’m glad I entered.

I’m glad I had the opportunity to test my skills against others, including close friends.

I’m glad I got as far as I did.

I’m glad I’m a father.

I’m glad I’m a husband.

I’m glad I withdrew.

I’m glad I’m going to enter again next year.

I don’t normally get a chance to read blogs or post when I’m home from work, as I’ve got everything setup here. Needless to say, I’m a little behind in my browsing – and more important my commentary. So I’ve got several items queued up for our enjoyment.

First off, sometimes you read two non-related items and make them related.

This first item goes out to you, Wil, and your awesome ascii horns. I laughed as I imagined you sitting there head banging and ignoring your cat.

So, when I came across the site The Jingler, a website which takes a song and adds bells to it for holiday cheer, my first thought was “How would Wil rock to that?”

So, I give you “Hallowed Be Thy Name” — jingled….

If the embedded link doesn’t work, here it is directly.

http://thejingler.com/jingle/541c4e0dc14be2048cb1682cfaef548c

For those of you who aren’t Iron Maiden inclined, maybe you’d prefer the Muppets?

Manamana — Jingled

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Festivus, Happy Yule, Happy
Solstice, etc, from the Tadcaster Militia.
Happy (Racially Diverse) Tadcaster Elves
There’s always one Scrooge

Edit: You know, it would have been alot funnier if the scrooge link actually went to the right location. People said last night, we didn’t recognize the person.. you know WHY??? It’s my uncle, which none of you know.. so I went and linked to the wrong scrooge file… {insert 1 Bobo Point}. As of 11:19am I just updated the link to the proper one, so if you viewed it before, it actually makes sense now.

Compliments of my friend Erich, I would like to introduce you to:
Will it Blend

{video}

http://revver.com/watch/180341/flv/glow-sticks/

I chose to show you that video, but I highly recommend watching both the Don’t Try This @ Home and Try This @ Home series of videos. You can see interesting blends such as Bic Lighters, an iPhone, Chuck Norris, a Crowbar, a Rake, and of course the Tilapia.

Now, I’m not sure I’d ever buy a blender that costs hundreds of dollars, but as far as a marketing gimmick to get you talking about their product, this is a good one. I won’t say never. However, while I can justify spending that kind of cash on a Dyson vacuum which I use regularly and know it’s worth the price, making the occasional peach smoothie doesn’t cut it for me.

Current Mood:  impressed

He went home last night, carved pumpkins with his kids and then met me for drinks around 8:30p. He is only about 25 minutes away. Tonight, rather than eat locally, I’m going to drive to his house to have dinner with his family. It’ll take closer to 45 minutes because I’ll be driving in traffic right now. I haven’t seen Erich since he came for the twins 1st birthday party, so it’s been 18 months. It’s been like that, on and off for 12 years since we graduated. Real life keeps us from seeing each other, and then time passes, and then we get together. I’m looking forward to seeing his kids tonight and how big they’ve gotten.

So while I was on the thought process of dinner with friends, I decided to give my buddy Murray a call. Now, Murray is a friend from college as well, but since he happens to be in the SCA *and* a fencer *and* in NJ, I see him regularly. I would say easily once every two months, sometimes several weeks in a row. However, our time is always spent being @ an SCA event, or going out to dinner with everyone else *after* an SCA event. I figured this would give us a chance to bullshit about life without the crowd. He’s working late tonight but thats ok as I have other plans (see one paragraph above, in case you forgot already). So he’s thinking we’ll get together on Thursday night.. but guess what? It’s fencing practice!!!

So i’m actually going to leave class, go meet him for dinner and then join him at practice. That way i get the best of both worlds. He only works about 10 mins from here, lives 25 mins, and practice is about 35 minutes… that rox…

I made sure my fencing gear was in the car before I left, just in case the fencing in Settmour Swamp practice idea panned out — I’d been batting that around for a week. it’s just nice that I can combo it with dinner with a friend as well.

Current Mood:  amused

While not a huge lolcat fan, I still find myself chuckling. Listening to this past weeks TWiT podcast #110, I found myself tracking down the following lolcat, + Maybe +, and thought of him immediately.

Current Mood:  bored