It sucks to be sober sometimes.

Today I got together with several members of the guild and freinds for a Pirates and Priests party. Yeah, that's right. Pirates and Priests. Having readied my religous sesntivities and purchased enough energy drinks to last me a night, I preapred for what was likely to be a pretty active(and by active I mean druken) night. For those who don't know, I have always a pretty firm no-drinking stance. While I'm used to others drinking, I've never wanted to do so myself. Mainly, becuase being the only sober guy at a lot of events has taught me something: You don't need to drink to have a good time and Drunks are really stupid and gullible people. To make a long story short, I never drink more than 1 shot at any event, and then only on a call of honor. I never even figured out nor experinced a buzz.

I actully manged to have a good time however, I was'nt the only over-21 staying sober and only a few poeple were truely drunk by the time I left. I was a good oppritunity to meet some of the guild's long time freinds and to loosen up a litle. I need to bring more energy drinks next time, though. My monster drinks were gone after 2 hours and I was stuck with soda.

The best part was that everyone seems to have given up offering me drinks. This was an initial worry involving the guild and as to wether I should try to become a pernament member. I hope that as I show clearly what I belive my faith tolerates and does not, the guild will acept that. I hope to learn what the various faiths of the guild tolerate and respect as well.

(PS: Just so none asks, my descion not to drink is not relgious. Jesus was fine with drinking, but not with getting drunk. My choice to not drink is personal not relgious.)

Fresno City Renfaire

(this is being posted a little late)

The second day of the Fresno city Renfaire was a blast just like the first one. I showed up early in the morning before the others had woken and met Shane in the encampment. We got up, looked at each other and looked around.

Me: "didn't we have four tables?"

Shane: "We did when I fell asleep at 1AM"

We then chanced a look over to the Dublin Garrison's (English invaders) camp, their stood half of our encampment, set out innocently around their own stuff. In the middle of it all stood a grinning Englishman with a video camera. After viewing their early morning hijinks on the camera(they video-recorded it), both groups helped lug all of our equipment back(including our anvil)

With this start to our festivities, we then set of it a pretty jovial mood. We played a round of 'Dragon's Treasure" where we all dived for a ball protected by a single player. I was wearing my chainmail and couldn't move worth a darn, but O well. On a definite plus side, I got to be in a large brawl with the Dublin garrison. That was a blast and I really enjoyed myself as I got to face someone much bigger than I was in grappling. It looked great. We had really big Gig involving several guilds as someone stole several important items and the guild leaders blamed each other. After some discussion a compromise was reached: They all decided to blame the Gypsies. We immediately fanned out to round up all the gyspies we could find and try them mob-justice style. Chasing the Gyspies throughout the Faire had drawn a huge crowd and we all smiled as they cowered from the Tauth Bean(Irish women), who having finished lunch, were furious that the Gypsy hearing was going on so long. I made a mental note to always be afraid of anyone who considers missing lunch deserving of capital punishment.

All in all, it was a great time and I'm really glad I joined in. The next Faire is in Tulare County, where we will be doing a lot of fighting. I look forward to it.

Fresno City Renfaire Day 1 !

Today was a good day. I arrived early in the morning, already geared up(having added a mostly finished Ionar to my setup.) Everyone arrived in good order, although our guild leader was a little late(but still an hour and a half early). The encampment was setup and the weapons and repast items were placed. Faire notes proceeded on time and was hit with an amazing surprise: Ian, my long time friend and guildmate, actually had a good acting idea..and he asked permission to do it. (his last escapade had almost gotten our guild in serious trouble.) We agreed to try it out along with some other gigs throughout the day. We were all very eager to get geared up and start our first procession before the faire started so that everyone could be in position for the opening action. The problem with my slightly-overlarge helmet was solved with a chainmail coif and I borrowed our guild leaders old chainmail so all of the guild Galloglaich would be properly suited up. Between the chainmail and the rest of my equipment, I was carrying somewhere around 65-75 pounds of arms and armor. I wore most of it throughout the day, but it wears on you quickly.

Our procession lead out without a hitch and we edged the corner of the Fiare entrance in good cheer and read to kick off the faire properly. As part of an 'advance' guard, two of the Galloglaich and the Cean Ceatharneach (leader of the native Irish Ceartharn fighters ) went ahead to meet both the guild of St Magelleans and the Guild of St Johns, who would try to bar them from entering the Faire. This would start off a fight between Thurmond (a Gallogliach) and one of St Magellean's fighters that was awesome to watch, we could hear the clang of the gauntlets off of Thurmonds helm from our hiding place. Cean Ceatherneach's war horn blew and the whole guild ran out from the corner and formed a skirmish line against the English with an extra guard around our patron the great Shane O'Niall himself. After much threatning to lop each other's heads off, the English lord Darby and the great O'Niall would manage to put peace on us common soldiers, with the Queen's promise of safe conduct hanging over the English heads. We then walked to our encampment with enough arrogance to make any American proud. The whole faire had that attitude to it. Instead of being the troublesome irish who were invited on a whim as usual, we were under personal protection of the queen and the main players in this faire. Of course, we abused those rights at first oppritunity:)

The First day was very active, which several wonderful moments. Some highlights of the first day:

*Taking over the courthouse. The guild of St. Greogry is a courthouse that will capture, interrogate(with copious amounts of water torture), and sentance any criminal for a price. They teach a lot about medival law and interrogation while having a blast screwing with the justice process. Ian had come up with the idea of siezeing control of the courthouse and had gotten permisson from St. Gregory's to hold them at gunpoint. It was sucha great idea that we eagerly marched down there singing. (the Ceartharn did anyway, Hostages and theft are almost exclusivlsy their territoty as much as bodyguarding is ours, so we stayed behind). The audiance loved it, as the Irish 'Gun Law' was a nice change of pace. Ian's younger brother made the mistake of walking by.... poor kid was soaked thoroughly.

*Submission. The biggest event for us Irish. The entire guild line up into section, with the Tuath Bean(proper women) leading with song, the Ceartharn following with war cries, and the GalloGlaich following after them shoutting the fmaily names of U'Niall and MacAiogh as loudly as poosibly. The whole court, who had'nt experinced this up close, fell back a step and guinely looked frightned. No other guild would have such a warlike entrance. Lord Fews(our guild leader and nephew to the U'Niall) would follow with the standard, raising the standard to the chant of "U'niall!" until he dropped it down and we all quieted immediatly. Then the U'Niall himself walks up to the court and talks to the queen. The usual speech comes forth about who-needs-who and discussion about the previous fights between them(that the irish have been winning for 15 years). The best part is when the U'Niall cuts off the queen but suddenly falling to his knees, wailing and beating his chest and shouting in Gaelic. After throwing off the English court again, Queen Elizibeth dimisses him. It was as much fun as we hoped it would be and we defintly stood out.

Otherwise, I did'nt do as well in the swordfighting as I had hoped, Tim won the pschological edge and domintated me. I don't think I won a fight today. I'm having a problem in that the chainmail pushes me from slowest fighter in the guild to defintly the slowest memebr of the guild. I'm gonna need weight training or soemthing if I want to be able to get an edge on these guys.

Networker interview

It's friday and the day before the Fresno City College Renfaire. Normally I'd report in after work to help setup the encampment for the weekend, but I had higher priorities today. My Networker interview was tonight. As I mentioned before, I have the oppurtunity to serve the church for 2 months as a temp employee/teaching assitant/consouler of sorts. The interview was a little stressfull. It's the first year they've ever had more applicants than slots to fill. This means not only did I have to prove I would be a good godly infulence on the children I would be assigned (Huge leap), I also had to prove I could be a better choice than the other applicants.

The interview took place at the home of one of the networker organizers, who did a very good job of realxing me somewhat. The interview team was a suprising mix, one of my college collueages I had'nt seen in a while was there as well as some elders of the church. I hope I made a good presentation of myself, It was a pretty friendly interview and I had prepared ahead of time. My only regret was that I had forgotten my orignally list or service area prefrences, and had changed them anyway, which probably made me look a little wishy-washy. Oh Well. On the cool side is that they not only were intrested in my being a renfaire actor, they asked me to put my armor on:) You could tell half of them had been youth educators because they immeditilitly started talking about what a cool 'armor of God' lesson you could do. It helped end the whole affair on a good note, which helped a lot. It also helped reafirm that the church does not immeidtitly assume renfaires to be 'bad' or 'evil' things. Attitudes I have encountred from certain 'pious' indivduals in the past.

More fun followed after the interview. I was invited for guild Kareoke. Only three of us Galloglaich, a Tauth Bean and no kern were able to show up. It was my first time at kareoke and I tried Kryptonite by Three Doors Down. Evidently the slow down the song and I had a lot of trouble maintaing the tempo. I'm also tone deaf, so I did'nt exactly make a splash with the audience but oh well.

Tommrow's the ren faire . Hope it goes well:)

Getting back into the spirit

Been sick recently, but had to put that aside for our dress Rehearsal for the Fresno City College RenFaire. Our entire guild showed up to figure our what acting gigs we'd be doing and to finally get to act like someone other than our 9-5 selves for the first time in 3 months. I managed to get my part in the major scene down without to much trouble. Mostly just remembering to march and look 'menacing'. I'm nowhere near menacing in real life, but there's a lot that chainmail and a long sword can do for that. Being a Galloglas is just plain fun sometimes. In entering the court, the Women and Kern are going to swarm in making a lot of noise and chanting, but we get to come in, swords drawn across our faces, full battle gear on display and 'Tough' written in bold letters all over us. There's nothing like walking into a room and knowing not only are you better armed than anyone else, you've got more combat training than the entire elite palace guard put together.

Also occurring was the Galloglaich competition. This was a quick Waster(hardwood practice sword) fight in full armor to decide who'll get the starring role in the opening fight between the Irish and the English. I almost held my own against one of the veteran fighters, but took a last thrust to the chest that had me dead to rights(2-1). Fighting in chainmail is a whole new experience as you can't rely on quick strikes or quick defenses. Only a good solid thrust takes out a chainmail fighter and so a lot of your shots become grappling matches to try to smash through your oppennets block and penetrate that blasted chainmail.

Everyone in the Fresno,CA region is encouraged to come in Fresno city College on March 12-13th. It's a great place to kick off summer at and the root beer is the best we'll see all year:)

Networking program, chance to do good?

I've been informed that my Networker application will be reviewed today, I'm pretty nervous. Every year, my church hires a small group of people to work with the children of the church. You work a random schedule six days a week, aasssiting around the church, guidning and consouling the kids and undergoing interior and/or urban ministry classes. It helps the church keep a strong youth minitry while training future disciples of the faith. It's a huge opprituniy and a rare chance. Half of the networkers are recruited from within the church while the other half come from other churches and/or fellow christians.

I felt called to join this year. I had previously decided not to apply as it would've meant the loss of my Job and I did'nt know if the amount paid would cover my car payments(I got stupid and bought a new car a while ago and am paying for it trough the nose). I managed to save enough to handle the car payments this year and really felt called to do it, so we'll just have to worry about the job when it happens.

In other news, I updated my profile with a picture of myself, so much for anomyity. I also found a neat list of relgious peotry at: zephirine of merryhedge .

Gearing up

Today several members of the Guild of St. Kennoch's got together to help do some pleminary planning for the Next Ren Faire. We have a pretty big part to fill as this year is gonna be the surrender of Shane 'O Niall to Queen Elzibeth. The history behind to event is frickin' great. Basiccly, Shane 'O Niall was promised the eralship or Tyron ( a really big peice of Ireland) in exchange for agreement to quit rebelling against the English. After meeting the queen in a huge procession, the 'O Niall and the queen touched on the subject and did the usual who-needs-who bull royalty live for. In the middle of the speech of the queen 'O Niall interupted her by drop to his knee and beating his chest and wailing in Gaelic. While to whole court tried to figure out what the hell had just happened. 'O Niall, having given the queen what she wanted, if not in the way that she wanted it, stopped as sudenly as he began, standing stright up and waiting for the queen's response. The bonus to the whole ordeal was his use of Gaelic, none of the ENglish could be certain as to what exactly 'O Niall said. History will never know if he was apoligizing or cursing her. It was probaly one of the most defiant surrenders in history and classic of the great 'O Niall clan.

I'll be playing a minor part as a Galloglas bodyguard, but that carries it own benifits. The Courts gonna be filled with these rapier wielding nobles and short sword wielding kern, when us badass Galloglas come marching in with broadsword and full armor. Our whole job is gonna to look as frighting as possible :) Playacting or No, Galloglas still make thier presence felt.

My personal preperation is still coming along. I'm trying to start up personal training with my sword again and my equipment's almost complete. I just need my helmet to arrive and to finish some touches on my sporran (uglist sporran ever) and my shoes. (note to self: Making shoes out of football leather, makes your feet look like footballs)

Also got to have a good discussion in apologetics with one of the guild members. Turns our they are a Pagan Apologetic (for those who don't know an Apologetic is someone trained to discuss thier relgion on an inteulectual level.) We managed to have a good disccusion without steping on each others toes, most of the guild follows the Pagan faith (relgion that blends witchcraft with jewish mysticism, popular in richer countries as it has a more self based view). Got asked that wonderful question, "If God made people that he knew would be damned, is'nt he evil by making them?". They did'nt accept free will as an answer. Gonna have to study the bible a bit on that one. I understand and acept the concept of Free will, but I fear my translating it to those outside my relgious culture was lacking. Add a good book on paganism to the shopping list.