[Artemisia] Re: Winter projects, thought for discussion, etc.

[El Hermoso Dormido]

On Thursday 06 November 2003 01:28 am, Dr. Helm-Clark wrote:
> I probably think too much (El Hermoso Dormido would certainly
> agree to that, but hey, I love him anyway  ;-)

Certainly, it isn't easy being married to a Thunkard.  Nearly every
day my wife comes staggering in the door, still thunk after a long day of
thinking at work all day.  Even then, she can't stop.  Seems she
always brings more with her to think, despite the toll it takes on her
mental health.  She just doesn't know when to stop thinking.  She denies she
has a problem, but she often stays up way too late, thinking when she should
be sleeping.  She's even taken to hiding books around the house.  I swear, 
one of these days she's going to develop cirrhosis of the limbic system...
I'm hoping they open a "Johannes Gutenburg Clinic" that I can send 
her to one of these days.

On the other hand, it does keep her too busy to start wondering what
she's doing married to a fat balding ugly dirty-old-man-in-training :-)

As to the topic at hand - I think it's being over-thought, too.

An SCA Award, in and of itself, is just a trinket, usually with a bit
of ceremonial fluffery, such as the peerage "Teapot and Fruit Bowl"
ritual.  It might be beautiful stuff, but it's still just ornamentation.
What's important is what the award/peerage is FOR, and that exists (or
fails to exist) independent of all of that.  What every case boils 
down to is that an award is supposed to be for a combination of
"demonstrating ability relevant to the award" and "being a good person".  Is
there really any need to codify it any further than that?

Admittedly, I'm feeling a bit cynical about this sort of 
discussion right now.  There's been enough stress out here
in the 'real world' lately that I just can't bring myself
to consider the issue particularly important by comparison.

MY winter projects:

Employment.  I'm fully employed again, thankfully.  I'd like to stay
that way.

School - being an eternal undergrad sucks.  I have 21 classes to
go, including the one that I'm taking now, to finish the most
relevant degree that's actually available in the area here.  It's
expensive and time-consuming, but I still would like to finish
one of these days.

The House - We've been here nearly a year and there are STILL
piles of books and boxes to put away, things to clean up, and
so on.  I have no idea where I'm going to put all of this stuff, 
but dealing with it is getting too stressful to put up with.  I'm 
going to do SOMETHING about it, even if it ends up involving a
cleared out space in the back yard, a can of lighter fluid, and
a match.

Spend some Quality Time with (inhale) My Fair and Beauteous
Lady, the Lovely and Talented "Die Rote Baronin" Meisterin 
Therasia von Tux(inhale) - with our overflowing schedules lately
we've hardly been able to get near each other most of the time, but
hopefully things will settle back down sometime soon.

With those matters to be attended to, it's hard to get too
enthusiastic about too much else at the moment.  

However, there ARE some SCA related things I hope to work
in if time permits:

The OP - Fix it Fix it Fix it.  The long overdue "internal rewrite"
and expansion of its capabilities, plus hopefully enticing out the
necessary information to bring all of the information up to date, 
plus add additional categories of information.  The next post will
concern that.  Besides, I can't be having An Tir outdoing me as they
seem to be at the moment...('Friendly Competition', in my opinion, 
is one of the best drivers of real innovation that there is...)

Food - More cookery, more research, re-translate some German primary
sources... The latter has, in addition to double-checking the accuracy
of the existing translations (I know for certain the current online
Sabina Welserin has at least one flaw...), the ulterior motive of
achieving a translation that I have the copyright to, and can
therefore freely distribute as I see fit...including using it
in the 'period primary sources on cookery' database that is currently
a pathetic toy that was hastily and sloppily thrown together, but 
which I may someday have time to re-make into something useful
that I could put online.  (and it IS a pathetic toy in
its current state.  I've been commanded to somehow give a 'class'
about it at collegium, and I still have no idea what I'm going
to say...)

Brewing - Something I haven't done in a long time - I still want
to dig up some good sources on Gruit and make some REAL 'period' 
ale (I hate the taste of hops, anyway).  Unrelated to this, I also want to try
making potato sake', just to see if I can.  Aspergillus oryzae is our friend.

Fighting - perhaps.  Don't even like to think about it when I'm not
relaxed, but hopefully things'll settle down and I can convince
myself to finish re-fixing my armor and make a fool of myself
flailing a stick around...

No idea how much of any of that I'll be able to get to.  We'll see.

signed,
El Hermoso Dormido, frustrated but hopeful