Descriptions of what we have done recently, because writing them amuses me, and because when I was a prefrosh, I spent a lot of time reading MIT club webpages, trying to figure out what they do.
21 January 2004
I taught Rhythmomachy to three students, and one MIT staffperson. I was woefully unprepared, but we played one decent game to the end. I promised that I was going to write rhythmomachy code, but so far it is vaporware.
29 August 2003
We had a table at the midway, and practiced telling the freshmen, in two sentences, what Mitgaard and the SCA do. We took a list of names and usernames, and those addresses should all be on the list mitgaard-newbie
11—16 August 2003
were the dates that I was at Pennsic. I went to a bunch of nifty classes, and spent too much money on leather and spices. With luck, those classes will inspire more excitement later this year.
18—20 July 2003
I was meant to maintain the upcoming events page, to mention Great Northeastern War. I was lame. Maybe someone who was there wants to put a description here.
3 May 2003
May Day event at I-forget-which-local-college. I can now say that I have partaken in a maypole ritual. We also met a fifth east alum scadian.
1 May 2003
Orlando taught us to make clews with cotton twine and beeswax. In this context, the term clew refers to a piece of string, dipped in wax and wound to make it convenient to hold, used as a light source. The simplest definition of the word seems to be any ball of yarn, with the familar sense of 'clue' coming from the Theseus story. (21 Aug: At Pennsic, I heard these refered to as tapers; more research beckons.)
27 April 2003
We attended the May Day event at Fenmere. The day featured tournaments in heavy list and in fencing. Hurley was played, and a regular hurley practice at Fenmere was announced. During court, Tibicen was honored for her service to the Waytes, and Greenwood Isle received its charter from the Baron. We left before dancing commenced, in order to tool.
23 April 2003
Justin du Coeur taught the game of primero during our weekly meeting. Specifically, he taught his reconstruction of the game described by English sources in period. Justin's webpage has his full explanation, with a link to the one-page summary about half way down the page.
30 April 2003
Our most recent minifeast was attended by Mitgaardi and SCA friends of Mitgaard in about equal numbers. The intention was to have other MIT students who might be interested in the SCA, but this fizzled, perhaps because we held it on the last day of spring break.