Knitting, cats and tea

Work this week has kinda been...bipolar. How can work be bipolar you ask? Well, we've had failed hardware...thought we figured out why and BAM! another failure. Think we have another problem licked, the peers and managers don't agree. Its been uplifting and aggravating at the same time. So, when I got home yesterday 1.5 hours later than I planned I was a bit tired and not feeling social. But I had a goal. I got my bike to the shop. The old mechanic, whom I've only had one other dealing with was the only one in and he futzed with it for a bit before finally deciding that, yes, it was gonna need some heavy duty trouble shooting and cleaning. Pistol hill was not kind to it.

I got home and was even more tired...so I made tea, knitted and watched tv. Got to chat a bit with american_knight about war stuff when he dropped off the award box of doom. Sorry honey but you looked like hell still. I hope you went home and went to bed. I worked on my knitting, only 2 rows left of the last repeat and 2 rows extra before I start the decreases. I could have a new hat next week which would be cool. I know I will need some simpler handwork for the weekend so I shall have to endeavor to finish it.

I took my armor out and went through it to figure out how to take some size out. I have to move two of my buckle straps. Its not hard but going to be a bit time consuming since they are laced into the scales. I should be able to get it torn apart tonight after knit night and back together tomorrow. Tonight after work is another teaching session at the gym. I think shoulders and back tonight. I'll be going from the gym straight to knit night and I'm cool with that since its kinda been SOP for the last few weeks anyway. Plus I've been staying a bit late due to work stuff anyhoo...so we shall see. I hope to leave tomorrow on time and be home with time to eat with the hubby for once this week.

I still need to finish richard's tunic (I mad it a bit big) and cut out two things for myself. I have to get cracking on that before next weekend. But luckily this year's war prep is pretty minimal which is nice compared to the last few years.

Words...interesting...

How words change definition is very interesting or how words can have wildly different definitions is very fascinating to me. Here is an interesting one. I've bolded the definitions that seem very, very juxtaposed. From Merriam-Webster Online

Main Entry: 1jar·gon
Pronunciation: \ˈjär-gən, -ˌgän\
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French jargun, gargon
Date: 14th century

1 a : confused unintelligible language b : a strange, outlandish, or barbarous language or dialect c : a hybrid language or dialect simplified in vocabulary and grammar and used for communication between peoples of different speech
2 : the technical terminology or characteristic idiom of a special activity or group
3 : obscure and often pretentious language marked by circumlocutions and long words

— jar·gony \-gə-nē, -ˌgä-nē\ adjective

Why A&S Classes Need Descriptions and good titles...

Some Anecdotes:

Mistress Cecile once commented or taught a class or was part of a discussion on A&S classes about how titles and descriptions are important. If you want people to come to your class add the word "zombies" to it...everyone will come to a class about zombies or be curious of how zombies could relate to said class.

Dame Fiona once mused aloud at an A&S night "No one ever comes to my Stumpwork classes" and I replied "Fiona, what's stumpwork?" She looked aghast that I had no idea that stumpwork was a later period embroidery technique which she got her laurel for. I explained "I've seen your class listed, seen the description that the handout was $2 and that you would be teaching various techniques of stumpwork, but you never say what it is..." The very next collegium her class title stated: Beginning Stumpwork Embroidery and lo and behold she had a few students.

My first pennsic I took many, many classes. One was entitled "Beginning Supportive Spinning" with a class description that all materials would be provided, along with instruction on beginning supportive spinning. I show up to the class and take it and I had a lot of trouble with it since I didn't spin at all at the time (and I barely spin fiber now) and the teacher was agast that I would go to a class on spinning with out knowing how. I explained that "well, the title said beginning supportive spinning and I figured that was the place to start to learn to spin" She commented that she hadn't even thought about that and realized she needed to put the caveat that "spinning skills required" in the description.

So, why Ianuk are you talking about this?
Well, our most wonderful Dame Jennifer (drink!) aka callas_and_ivy has now for the second year organized all of the A&S classes for the war. She was persistent in bugging previous teachers, putting out the call for classes and instructors. When she sent out our schedule she noted that "class descriptions would not appear in the gatebook". She sent us a link of the schedule/descriptions as you can go to here and the same google doc is linked on the Estrella War Website as well.

So, you can sit and read at your leisure before the war and figure out what classes you want to take and make your schedule. There are plenty of classes to choose from and many look enticing. There are a few though that without reading the descriptions that people will be shaking there heads at. Such as "Hardanger 101", "Salwar", "Beginner Taiko", "Bubble Bubble Toil and Trouble". I know what the first 3 are: A Norwegian Embroidery Technique, Middle Eastern Pants and Japanese Drums but the last one confused me until I read the description...its a kids class of mad science messy experiments, slime etc.

Now imagine, that you didn't have time before war to plan...you get to site in the dark, set up and in the dark, sleep a few hours and get up and you find after you get back from your morning troll duty over lunch that you can't quite figure out what to take since you're not sure what some of these classes are all about since only the schedule is printed in the gatebook.
Now, a very A&S minded person would probably head down to the A&S area and see what was up and see the print outs of the descriptions.
On the other hand a person who might be newer or might only now be getting into going to classes might be intimidated, uncertain of what to do and might just decided that since they couldn't figure it out they would just go watch the battles, go shopping or take a nap.

Well is that bad? In my example, the person had a late night anyway, a nap might be good but what does that mean to the person who is teaching the class? 1)They might not get the students they want i.e. people who want to learn what they are teaching; 2)They might not get any students at all and all of the effort they put into their handouts, time and travel to the event might be wasted, which could 3)spiral into that person never wanting to teach since no one came... That would be sad. For the students and for the teacher.

Now, we haven't been told why they aren't being printed in the gate book...I'm going to assume its a money thing. If it is a money thing, I'm sure we could have gotten people in the A&S community, a head of time, to print things out personally to bring to war to have at troll for folks to pick up. Other wars have a separate book just for classes. We haven't been told though why, so that is as far as I can conjecture and postulate.

So, I want to make sure everyone who reads this or forwards it sends as many people as possible to the link to the class lists and descriptions before war. And at war any who hear someone complain in their camp about not knowing what a class is about, hears murmurs in merchants to the same effect to send people to the A&S tents for information. I want people at my classes, Countess Cecilia wants people at her classes, Lord Richard wants people to attend his first class (A Sharp Tool is a Joy to Hold with ZOMBIES) and Dame Jennifer wants folks to come and enjoy the collegium.