Monday, August 31, 2009

Enlistment, philosophy and cats.

Some random stuff, not really anything in any particular order, but stuff I thought was neat.

A few months ago when I was at 30th year, I ran across an old friend of mine (and a fellow herald). We got talking and she pointed out that she was now a protege, like I was. I congratulated her and asked if she was pursuing being a pelican, or if she was just looking to codify a strong friendship. (I asked about these two examples because, in broad terms I have found that these are the most common reasons people give when asked why they are proteges)

However, this individuel shook her head and said. “No, neither really. I just didn't feel like trying to map out my SCA career myself, so I decided to let someone else do my thinking for me for a while.”

To this I offered a little laugh. “Oh, I see. I think mundanely we call that enlistment.”

She laughed in return. “Enlistment... Yeah, I like that comparison. That's it to a tee. I enlisted.”

So there you have it, yet another approach to protegeship.

And today I was driving home when I saw a bumper sticker that just seemed to strike me as perfect.

“May God help me be the person my dog thinks I am.”

When I share that comment with a friend in Northkeep, he laughed hard, and then added. “You see, that's why I like cats, they make you earn their respect.”

think what you may, but he's got that last part dead on, in my honest opinion.



Lord Ivo Blackhawk
Protege to Master Robert Fitzmorgan
Nordsteorra Herald
Kingdom of Ansteorra
"God Save the King!"

"Non unus step tergum"

Saturday, August 15, 2009

Stepping up, stepping out, and leaving a few things behind.

Well, I think it is time I did some housekeeping, and set aside some stuff that was really complicating my SCA game more than it should have.

First of all, I am closing down, for the time being, my production of "The Blackfeather News". Click for details, but the short summary is that I'm not in a position to do the show justice right now.

Needless to say, I am probably going to pull away from a lot of the local activities in Mooneschadowe, and concentrate my efforts on my Regional office, Nordsteorra Herald.

Now let me be clear... anyone who knows me knows that I have clashed with a few locals over the past few years. However, this move has absolutely NOTHING to do with that. I applied to the NR office in order to serve the kingdom and the region. Right now, I feel that in order to do that, I need to pull back from local happening to a degree, and concentrate on my office.

And building on that, I am going to start making Namron's pop meetings again.

This became problem when Namron's pop meetings were moved to the same night of the month as Mooneschadowes, and I had to choose. Well, now, the situation had changed, and I don't feel that I need to make every Moonescchdowe Pop meeting in order to participate in the group anymore. There are still heraldry meetings, and A&S nights. And On dance nights (I don't dance), Master Robert and I are learning the game GO, and that is just loads of fun.

I really don't know where my current situation fit into where I want to go with my SCA career. Sure, I know I'm not completely off base, or anything. But right now, I see a lot of short term objectives, and not a lot of long term ones, so I might want to look into that some more. I don't want to loose side of my intimate goals here.

But with all that aside, I personally feel that I am in a position to make some big changes in the north of the kingdom. And those would be changes for the better, and changes that don't necessarily push against the way things are done, but rather open new venues for people to play the game that aren't quite so active right now.

Other than that... well, Life is moving on.


Lord Ivo Blackhawk
Protege to Master Robert Fitzmorgan
Nordsteorra Herald
Kingdom of Ansteorra
"God Save the King!"

"Non unus step tergum"