His Grace,count_gunthar  posted this on our kingdom list and it made me cry.  No, I don't know why, but it did and I thought it deserved to be reposted.

It is common for Crown tournament announcements to declare the winner and the second place or round robin finalists to be just a footnote. After all there really is no Silver or Bronze medals in the Society. Just the winner and everybody else.

As a long time "cheesecake eater" I'd like to tell of those who fell.

The final three were Count Romanius Valerius Scipio and Sir Louis le Blaireauas well as Sir Owen.

Count Romanius fought beautifully, with the skill and ferocity that he has become known for, even making Owen step back a few times. Owen legged him but Romanus continued fighting on until struck down with a thrust. His fight with Louis was beautiful and clean. Both  fought with precsion and care. There were several close calls but then Louis struck Romanus in the helm with a blow that others might not have called but His Excellency graciously saluted his victor and left the Crown from his brow for another day. He left the field as an honor and inspirationto Ansteorra.

The Finals were between Owen and Louis. Owen was eager and determined to win. Louis was focused and ready for serious play. It was a battle ofthe great bear versus the panther. Owen attempting to crush his opponent with power, strength and overwhelming attacks. Louis danced from him,trying to keep range and awaiting an opening. There were jabs and powerhouse blows. They danced in the 122F heat indexed field from one end to the other. Louis struck and moved but to no avail. He was struck in the leg and when asked to yield he spoke only of his lady and continued the fight. But he was quickly felled.

Again the panther (for, although he is called "The Badger" Louis would not barrel through his opponent through ferocity but had to rely on speed and movement) faced the bear and again they danced. Owen coming on with heavy blows and overwhelming force while Louis danced back and around trying for an opening. Then, during one of their innumerable clashes there was a crack in the bear's defense and the panther struck.

Owen called "Nice face shot!" and crashed down.

A last time they stood. For those of you who have never been there, that third fight of Crown is the most terrible. You are exhausted, as these two were, and you know your future will be determined in one shot. They stood, breathing heavily and feeling the weight of the Ansteorran sun through leather and steel. "Lay On" was called and again it was the dance. The bear trying to catch the elusive cat and the cat trying to avoid the crush of the paws. There was talk from Owen but Louis only concentrated on the fight, trying to get that opening again. After a   lash, Louie hesitated and then stated that his arm had been taken. Of course he would not yeild. Owen wished to retain his shield but after Count Simon talked with him he decided to replce the shield with buckler.

After all, Ansteorra holds heroes highest of all, and our King should be a hero.

The final flurry was fast and intense. One blow from Crown or footnote. 

A helm rang and Sir Louie fell to the ground.

There is far more to a Crown tournament than the person that won.

Those who win have deserved the praise they recieve but we must not forget those who stood close and held the honor of the game   because sometimes to lose is harder than to win.

Sir Rhodri yielded to me that third fight in my last Crown. That is courage and honor. Duke Miguel fought injured and with a glaive in the Finals of the Crown won by His Majesty, and gave all he had so that Hrafn can know he won with honor. Jarl Timo lost to Duke Patrick-Michael because being a hero is more important than being a Duke.

Give praise to our Crown and Heirs. But also praise those that stood in their way.

Gunthar 
10 time cheesecake eater.

ETA- The note about Timo and Patrick-Michael was in no way meant to be a slam on His Grace or Dukes in general.

I figured most people knew the story of the Crown in which Jarl (Count) Timotheos faced Duke Patrick in the Finals. In the final bout Timo took Pat's leg. When asked to yield, His Grace responded that if he wanted to be a duke he would have to earn it. To this Timo responded that he didn't want to be a duke, he wanted to be a hero. Timo then joined Patrick on the ground and subsequently lost the fight and the Crown.

To be a Duke is the dream of nearly every serious fighter in the Society and to find the desire for fair play, a show for the populace and an act of what some would consider stupid heroism merely for the honor of one's name has been the cornerstone of what makes me put on armor and go through it all.

My comment was in no way meant to be a dig at a great man and good friend, Duke Patrick-Michael, but a celebration of another amazing fighter who "gets it".

I do hope this apology and clarification is sufficient for any who may have seen it a different way. For anyone who passed on my first story, please pass this on as well in case any others would have the same misconception.

Thank you,

Duke Gunthar
 

Poll #1427309 Paint That Funny Looking Shield!
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

Okay...so I have a funny shaped shield. Basically, I took my kite and cut off the curves to make a coffin shaped shield, and covered it with canvas. Now, it needs a little decoration. So...what should I paint on my shield?

Current Mood: busy

spirituality-  I think you can express your devotion to (insert diety of your choice here) in many ways, in all aspects of life, and that, to me, is what spirituality is about.

SCA - Society for Creative Anachronism.  What can I say?  I come by the "dress up funny and pretend to kill people on the weekends" gene honestly.  My dad used to do ACW re-enacting, and I guess the experience just kinda stuck.  Besides, where else to you get to look at awesome clothes, hit people with sticks, learn about history, meet cool people, and generally hang out with folx who are as weird as you are, but don't think you're "out there."

Gaming-  My chance to be everything I can't be IRL and go to fantastic places and have a good time.  Also, it lets me get a lot of real-life frustrations out, and while it might have negative consequences in the game, no one actually gets killed, no one gets blown up, and at the end of the night, it's all paper and dice.  One of my exes used to ask why those of us who gamed didn't just "go out and do" a bunch of stuff.  Well, when you game with a chick who's had a tracheotomy, and a guy with asthma so bad he literally had an inhaler around his neck... it was as close as they could come to doing a lot of those things.

armed services- The thing that has shaped more of my adult life than just about anything else.  Joining the Army was, flat out, the best decision I ever made. 

faith- I have faith in that which I cannot see, but believe in anyway.  I've felt God too much in my life to *not* have faith.  Heck, even when I was pagan, I had faith in *something* out there. 

Current Mood: talkative

I haven't been up to much lately.

Still having massive house lust, but have done some rearranging to open the space up a bit, and we'll be making bookshelves after Pennsic to hold the 1000+ paperbacks we have.  We're going to make them paperback-deep so the hallways don't seem *quite* so narrow.  We may be able to get rid of some shelves in the living room when we do this, as well, and that would be lovely.

I have drill this weekend, and honestly, I'm not looking forward to it much.  I really do get that there is a ton of administrivia that must be dealt with before deployment, but it's hard to get through the mountains of paperwork and briefings.  *sigh*

On the good news front, my knees are behaving even with running again.  Granted, I'm taking it a LOT slower that I was before, but since the doc said it was pain that I was just going to have to learn to live with, I'd rather be running than not.  I was talking with Amalia when she was down here last week, and we figured out that we're no longer "people who run," but runners.  I never, ever thought I'd really see that as part of defining who I am, and God knows I'm not good at it, but there it is.  Weird. 

Speaking of Amalia...I'm so grateful Elizabeta passed on her contact information.  We don't have a *lot* of friends, and I kinda suck at keeping in touch with the ones we do have, but Amalia and Alejandro have become some of our best friends.  It's to the point that Moxie doesn't even bother to bark when they come in to the house.  (For those of you who don't know the Horrible Rat Dog, this is a HUGE deal.  Moxie thinks all humans, with a select few exempted, are Dog Muggers.  Very Scary.   I can name all the People Who Are Not Dog Muggers on both hands and have fingers left over.)

Hmmmmmmmm....have an invitation to go to Elysium next weekend, so I'm going to have to see how we're doing, and what we're doing, and make a decision.  A friend's hubby is getting back from deployment, and it would be good to see them both, as well as have the chance to dress up.  I don't get a lot of those any more. 

Pennsic is coming up fast, and I'm so not ready for it.  I have cotes to finish, after I finish John's stuff.  Granted, his stuff is *easy peasy*, but the buttonloops take time and while they're easy, and I can assembly line them, it still takes time.  I have three more pairs of pants to make, and again, they're easy, but....AGH!! 

Also, because I'm a dork, I forgot to put the eyelets in the sleeves of my new fighting cote, so I need to fix that.  I'm pointing the elbow cops to the sleeves, and hoping that solves my slippage problem.  Since I've only really got the one lightweight cote, I may just sew exterior points to this coat and make another one with the sleeves done right.  Yeah, the exterior ones won't be as strong, but I hate to see my lovely, over-engineered sleeves go to waste.  :-)

So...that's about it from the land of SoldierGrrrl.

Current Mood: content

I've got love, friends and happiness.

That's all I've got to say, really.  I hope you all had a wonderful Independence Day!

I just got a rather pointed thwap upside the head.  :-)

I needed it.  I'll be back here more regularly.

Um.  Let's see....I know!  An update in bullet points!

• Have gotten sucked into Facebook.  Kill me.  No, not really.  It's fun.  Easier and quicker to put little blurbies up than a big post, but...
• Deadline has eaten my brain.  Again.  However, the magazine is edited, laid out and on the way up for publishing approval.
• SCA is going.  :-)  One of our company is heading home from Iraq soonest, and we'll be thrilled to welcome him home, along with the troopies he recruited over there.  *squee*
• PENNSIC!  AGH!  *flail*  Have so much sewing it's not funny.  Sew sew sew sew.  Must sew.  *falls over dead*  Lucky for me, John's stuff is easy-peasy and the roomie sews for himself, so it's just a matter of some plain and simple tunics for me and three or four new cotes.  Heh.  I'm so optimistic.
• Um.  Right.  Dog.  Are now proud caretakers of small horse large dog, notably a Great Dane.  He and Moxie get along fabulously, and Gina is the cranky old lady who sits on the porch and tells the youngsters to get off her lawn, dammit.  Moose is almost seven feet tall when he stands on his hind legs to give hugs and kisses.
• Kids.  Are here for summer visitation.  Going very well, akshully.  We've had a few moments of pissy attitude from the Boyo, but nothing that a little time won't solve. 
• Am having screaming house lust.  SCREAMING.  Do you hear me?  I want our own house so bad it's not funny.  We'll ignore the fact that we're probably moving after deployment and just have screaming house lust, m'kay?
• I think the list is done.
• Oh, am slightly sad for all the Obama folx out there who are disappointed by his recent actions.  I'm just kinda sorry that he's turning out to be just another politician, and not the great hope he was supposed to be.
• Fillibuster proof majority.  Yay. 
• Dear left-wing idiots:  get out of my gun cabinet and don't take away my cheap gas.  Carbon emmissions on the same level as Sudan?  Are you serious?
• Dear right-wing idiots:  There's a reason your middle base is drifting away.  Get out of my ovaries, realize that not every one is the same brand of faithful you are, and start remembering there are those of us who firmly believe separation of church and state is GOOD THING.

I think that's it.

I'm gonna go die now.

Current Mood: busy

Hi all!  I'm selling off some of my patterns again.  This is a mishmash of everything from vintage 1950s to 2000s. 

I'll have them up soon.

Well, since we're going to Pennsic, we're going to need a trailer.  Especially since it looks like there will be four of us going, with two tents.  :-)

What we're looking for is at least a 5x8.  Anyone got a trailer laying around central Texas that they're interested in renting out (cheap!) or selling (cheap)?

Something like this:  http://austin.craigslist.org/cto/1231831203.html or this: http://austin.craigslist.org/ctd/1230824452.html would rock.

We can do some work on it, and replace bits and bobs if needed.  :-)

Current Mood: curious

With my beloved husband settling in to heralding like a particularly eloquent fish, I've started thinking about my niche in the Society.

Oh, I fight. Don't get me wrong about that, but I'm not sure I'll ever get past feeling like I'm out there playing dress up. I'm not going to embarrass myself by babbling about what I'd like to accomplish with my fighting some day, though.

I like to sew, but I'm pretty sure I'll never be a Laurel, not because don't want to be, but because I just don't think I'm that good. I'm not sure I ever will be.

So, now we look at other stuff I like to do. I like to feed people and take care of them. Like I say, if you leave our camp hungry, it's your own fault. But I'm not a natural talent at it like some, my mom for instance, although I am a pretty damn good cook.

I want to learn gothic bookbinding, so we'll see how that goes.

I think this is starting to sound like a pity party, so I'm going to hush now.

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Current Location: US, Texas, Bastrop, McAcres Dr, 177
Current Mood: Contemplative

I have a bad habit of gnawing on my cuticles.  It gets to the point where I will bleed, and it'll be severely painful for several days while I wait for the skin to grow back so I can start it all over again.

I seemed to be doing better...until today.  I had a bit of dead skin on my thumb and well...

Yeah. OW.

Now, I'm dealing with a raw cuticle and it HURTS.

I'm an idiot.

Especially ones that think it's funny to get on a trampoline at 0800 on a Sunday morning with the express intention of teasing our dogs over the back fence. 

Oh, how do I KNOW they were specifically teasing our dogs?  Because when we brought the dogs inside, the kids got off the trampoline and went in their house.

And there was an adult standing there WATCHING THEM.

Assholes.

Tags: asshat
Current Mood: pissed off

We are home safe. I was so happy to come home and sleep in my own bed.

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Current Location: US, Texas, Travis, Austin, N Mo Pac Expy

On my way to the Atlanta airport. Funeral should be Wednesday or Thursday.

Thank you all so much for your kind words and prayers.

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Current Location: US, Georgia, Fulton, Atlanta, I- 75

For all your prayers. My grandmother fell asleep in the Lord this afternoon.

May her memory be eternal!

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Current Location: US, Georgia, Gwinnett
Current Mood: Sad

My grandmother just entered Hospice care yesterday. 

She's still very much with us but she's just so tired.

If you could please say a prayer for her, to feel a bit of relief from the nausea, for peaceful rest, for quality of breath and for restful sleep that is refreshing to her.

I'd appreciate it.

So, my barony had another Knight School last night.  It's not exactly a school on how to become a knight, more...a chance to get out, fight some folx who are *really* good and who you may not get a chance to fight all that often.  Basically, you fight a knight for two minutes, they give you feedback for two minutes, and then it's lather, rinse, repeat until time is called.  You do switch up knights, to get a chance to get your butt kicked fight the maximum number of times.

I was NOT looking forward to it, honestly.  Yeah, I know...great chance to learn, great chance to get instruction from some really great fighters... great chance to look like an absolute idiot on the field the horribly raw fighter I am.  My armor was a bit late showing up, and I forgot my contacts, but I got kitted out anyway, and slunk toward the field, hoping against hope that everyone would just ignore me. 

No such luck.  I'm over in a corner getting my armor on, and my favoritest baron leans over the net on one of the tennis courts, and yells at me that I'd better fight or he's going to swat me.  I look up and tell him he's going to need help, and then...he starts getting volunteers!  Gah!  You people are NOT supposed to help him!   After the fighting, he made a point to come over and tell me he was happy to see me out there.

First butt-kicking was delivered by fight was Sir Ysfael.  You can find his field knighting on my Flickr page, and honestly, he was a fun fight.  I need to find my notes again, but he talked to me about rehanging my shield and working on wraps.

Second fight was Sir Gaston.  The last time I fought Sir Gaston was miserable for me.  I'd been in armor maybe five times and he just got up in my face and would NOT back off.  It was so bad that I had refused to consider fighting him again.  Please note:  I do NOT think Gaston was trying to be a jerk.  He used a perfectly valid technique, but I did not react well.  It was in my head, not necessarily reality.  He mentioned rehaning my shield, and...I'll have to look at my notes. 

Third fight was Sir Kael.  He and I dance a bit, and he mentions....rehanging my shield.  Oh, and also that I've got good power coming in, which is a good thing in a fighter as new as I am.  Evidently, a lot of folx at my level have trouble with generating power.  He mentioned that I need to work on my range and take more shots at the pell.

Fourth fight...and the one I was literally panting in fear of...was Duke Aaron.  Don't get me wrong.  I adore Aaron.  He's a neat guy, and I love him to death.  He's just...really scary to me for some reason, at least on the field.  Off the field, I can flirt with him, tease him and he's just...Aaron.  On the field...it's different.  Something about...oh...being my housemate's knight, and someone I really really really don't want to look like a total idiot in front of.  Don't ask me why, but I'm more worried about looking STUPID in front of him than anyone else.  Well, mostly. 

Okay fine, I am scared of looking like an IDIOT in front of most knights anybody most days.  I don't mind looking ignorant, but for some reason...Oh hell, I'm shutting up now.  I'm starting to sound like an idiot.

One of the things I overheard his Grace talking about was the guy before me just let Aaron walk up to him and whack on him.  Okay...so I decide I'm going to circle a bit and keep moving.  It sort of worked.  I didn't let him just waltz up to me and smack me.  He did it anyway, but he didn't just walk up and do it.  He mentioned...guess what?  Yep. Rehanging my shield.  Oh and moving my right hand because my hand is fairly vulnerable and he really doesn't want me to end up with broken fingers.  Also, as a lefty, I really need to work on wraps.

After the fight with his Grace, I called it quits as I was fighting blind and I was beginning to have trouble differentiating the sword from background clutter.

The weather had also started to turn, so we gathered in for the final circle, where the knights talk a bit about something they consider important.  Fealty, keeping a list of something, not fighting your equipment, learning from the past, having fun...stuff like that.

Honestly...I'm really glad I fought.  Really glad.  I didn't do well, but I did it. 

Tags: dork dork dork, fighting, i don't hit things with sticks, i hit things with sticks, knighthood, sca
Current Mood: relieved

This is what I do for a living.

The Dispatch. 

This is what it looks like now:



Yes, the type is a little hard to see, but it's the best I can do right now.  Let me know what you think, please?
This is what it looked like a year ago: