kareina: (stitched)
I am just back from the Norsken Gaming Con in Skellefteå. This was a spur of the moment trip on my part. I vaguely recall some of my SCA friends in the shire of Rengaarda (not quite two hours south of here) mentioning in a FB group weeks ago that they were planing on doing an SCA display at that event, but at the time I just saw the name "Norsken", and didn't notice what it was, and didn't have the energy to look it up, and kinda forgot. More recently O. said that he was thinking of heading down for it, but I still didn't really pay much attention to what it was or why he wanted to go (other than knowing that one factor was that he would get to spend time with P., his girlfriend there).

Wednesday evening was Frostheim social night, the first one that [livejournal.com profile] lord_kjar has managed to attend all this calendar year (he gets home from work about the time to go, and lately he would rather stay home and have time to relax after work and get some dinner, than rush right out the door). But this week he has just finished carving a bow for archery out of an ash-wood broomstick handel, and he wanted to make the string. Twining a bow string is a perfect sort of hand-work to take to the meeting, so he joined us. Sadly, none of the students made it this week, so there were only four of us in attendance for most of the evening, and O. arrived late in the evening, but just on time to get a quick lesson from my senior apprentice on the tablet weaving project that she helped him thread on cards last week, and for which she has worked the first few repeats of the project and written up a "recipe" for him.

After the meeting he followed us home, and he and I wound up talking till 02:00 before going to sleep (but never mentioned the Norsken con during all of that time). I got up early the next morning, Thursday, which was a holiday in Sweden, and did my "day 3" workout from my personal trainer before breakfast. It felt good to do it, since I was rather low energy much of the last week, and didn't manage to do the program workouts every day, and on one day I did start it, but quit after only a few minutes and went home for a nap instead.

After the workout and a shower I went back downstairs and asked O. what his play for the day was, and he replied that he wanted to catch the bus down to Skellefteå in about an hour to attend Norsken. He wound up not catching that bus, but started working on his Viking trousers in progress instead, thinking that perhaps the 13:00 bus would be better. When it was nearly 13:00 we decided that instead of his taking the bus, I would go with him, and we would take my new car. However, that car hasn't had its tires changed yet (and we haven't been driving it as a result). Since C. was coming home this weekend I couldn't just take the blue car, since that would leave [livejournal.com profile] lord_kjar nothing to drive to pick her up from the train station on Friday.

Therefore the boys changed from winter to summer tires on Styx (the car's licence plate number starts out with the letter STX, so the name for the car was kind of obvious), even though the plan is to take the car in for service on Monday morning and purchase new summer tires for it, since the old ones are getting very worn down, and, as they noticed when they changed them, one of them has obviously had a puncture repaired by injection of (something rubbery) at some point. That took long enough for me to pack SCA costumes and other things for the weekend, and we finally hit the road at 16:00.

This got us to the event a bit before 18:00, which is when the open to the public part of the con ends, but we still spent about an hour and a half on site checking it out and visiting with friends of mine from the SCA, larp, and gaming circles, and friends of his from the SCA (same folk as above) and theater and other university friends. Then we headed over to P.'s place, where our friend A. and her two kids were also staying. They were in the middle of baking some bread for when we arrived, and I happily ate some of the rolls hot out of the oven, despite the fact that it was later in the day than I am normally hungry.

We chatted for a while, but we were all kind of tired, and I went to bed at 21:00 that night, and the others weren't up much later. We returned to the con about 10:00 the next morning, after enjoying a leisurely breakfast. The event turned out to be much fun--we got to talk up our Medieval Days at Hägnan event to many people, including a geologist from the Swedish Geological Survey who worked on the "better geology" mod for Minecraft. He had a booth where people could test the mod, and he also had a bunch of rocks and some label cards with Minecraft photos of rocks that people could match. Even though the labels were written in Swedish I managed to match 100% of the rocks and names on my first try (though it is lucky that "pimpsten" was the only Swedish rock name he had on the list that I hadn't seen before, so I could get that one by the process of elimination). I have him convinced to ask his boss if the Geological Survey can do a "mining through the ages" display at our Medieval Days event. I hope the boss says yes.

We did fighting demos both days (O. participated, wearing my armour), and I was the MC one of the days. I don't know if it works to past a link to a video on FB in here the same way one would do any other url link, but if it does, here is the film one of our members did of that first demo.

Other event highlights include R2D2 running around on his own (never mind the other StarWars guy following him while holding a remote-control sort of contraption), meeting the lovely British gentleman who played BobbaFet (or however one would spell that), borrowing a huge (~2 meter long cos-play sword for use as a straight edge to mark the quilting lines on my gambeson in progress, seeing Tinkerbell adjusting the scarf on one of those green aliens with the pair of large snake like things growing out of the back of her head (what are they called, and where have I seen them? I know I have seen them often over the years, which kinda points to either star wars or star trek)--both the alien's skin and Tinkerbell's tunic were the exact same shade of green. It was also lovely to see so many friends I haven't seen in a long time and to meet new people.

However, attending that event meant that I haven't had time to do the computer-related Hägnan tasks I had intended to do on Thursday-Saturday. Therefore O. and I have decided not to attend fighter practice tomorrow morning, which gives him time to complete the last of the paperwork that he needs to do before handing over the economy for Phire to the person who is taking over that job, and I will be able to start the Hägnan computer tasks that got bumped on account of the trip. In theory, I will not have any problems continuing with progress on that stuff over the next few weeks, now that I finally have access to, and know the existence of, the email address for the event.
kareina: (me)
I am spending the weekend in a small town near the Swedish city of Umeå attending a role-playing game convention. The weekend has been fun all around--I and my friends are based in the "Indierummet" (room dedicated to "independent" role-playing games), which is the home-ec room in the school we are using for a site, which means we have not only a full kitchen, but enough stoves and ovens and sinks to ensure that we can all cook at the same time if we feel for it.

I have enjoyed all of the games we played so far, but tonight game, The Daughters of Verona is by far the most fun game I have played in a long time.

The game is run like a Shakespearean comedy in five acts. Like all of his comedies the play ends in a wedding, but, as is expected, there are characters who are attempting to block the lover's and prevent their joyous union. Each player in the game is an actor, and each of us has two (or more) character cards before them at any given time. Unlike most other role-playing games it is possible for actors to trade cards and thus play any role one is inspired to play at the moment. Also unlike many other role-playing games rather than speaking in the third person we describe our actions in the first person, for in any play the audience in the cheap seats in the back of the theater might not be able to see what the actor does as he kneels to pick that lock, they will still hear him when he says "Now I shall kneel and pick this lock so that I may enter the door to this room".

We played the game tonight with the man who wrote it, who is a friend of mine. He tells me that he wrote the game in 10 days (during which he continued to work his normal day-job) as an entry into a Shakespeare-themed game competition. I am truly impressed with that accomplishment--to write a game in his second language, and to take the time to create so many character cards (each one illustrated with a reproduction of an actual period portrait) and so many "scene cards" embellished with appropriate quotes from Shakespeare's plays all put together on a tight deadline.

I strongly recommend this game to anyone who enjoys playing games or watching plays, or reading literature, or any combination thereof.
kareina: (me)
I took this week very easy in an attempt to stay healthy. [livejournal.com profile] lord_kjar had a sore throat for a couple of days, and I didn't want one, but would have been exposed to whatever triggered his. So I drank lots of echinacea tea and rested and had frequent hot showers, and managed to avoid most symptoms--I did get some sniffles accompanied by random sneezes on Friday, but they were gone by Saturday morning. This is good because we had company for a gaming day on Saturday. One of our local friends runs a mini gaming convention here in Luleå at not quite random intervals wherein everyone who wants to participate fills in a google docs spreadsheet with games they are willing to run, puts their names next to games offered that they want to play, and lists which days/times on the appointed weekend they are free to play. He then devises a schedule wherein everyone who wants to play plays in some games in all of the time slots they signed up for, possibly even the games they said they wanted to play (though I gather that he puts more effort into seeing that each game has the appropriate number of players than in matching everyone to their first choice games--since most gamers will be happy with most games, even if some sound more fun than others).

Life being busy [livejournal.com profile] lord_kjar and I only signed up for the shifts for Saturday day time and Saturday evening this time, which is good because it gave us Friday evening to finish recovering from the cold, do some grocery shopping, and tidy up the house a bit. Saturday during the day we ran a session of the While the World Ends game (he blogged about the last time we did this), and in the evening we participated in a game of "Squire's Oath", a rules-light fantasy role playing game set in a world wherein young people come to the castle to start their training as a squire--a path that could ultimately lead them to being knights, or harpers, or healers, or any number of other careers. Having done most of my gaming in games like D&D which are really rules-heavy (and having relied on friends who had the rules books memorized) these sorts of games are quite a contrast.

I like the much easier playing style, and the fact that when things happen it takes no longer than it does to tell about it for it to happen (even when dice are involved), rather than a 15 second battle lasting 45 minutes. However, being a reader, not a writer, I am not yet completely comfortable with the fact that *I* have to make stuff up about what we discover. I would rather say "I look for tracks", and be told what I find, rather than saying "I look for tracks, and I notice..." Perhaps because life is more like the former--I decide what to look at, and what to do with the information I find, but I don't get to decide what is actually present in the world to see.

The other players, clearly, are not inhibited by the "make stuff up" part, and they gleefully added in any number of plot twists that I could have happily lived with out, as well as others that I was delighted to hear about. But then, the difficult to experience plot twists are what make it an adventure, aren't they?

Today we slept in (he much longer than I), and this afternoon we are expecting a visit from a friend who will go to Folk Dance with us in the evening.

In other news, I finally took photos of the Bronze Age technique of the overcast blanket stitch edging that I have been experimenting with (and like so much). I like this technique much better than plain blanket stitch--plain blanket stitch tends to have issues snuggling up to the edge of the fabric and staying there (in my experience), which are solved by winding another thread around the blanket stitch. When I first read of this technique on figure 27 of this page I assumed that it was done in two steps, first the blanket stitch, then doing the overcast stitch with a new thread on the needle. However, when I sat down to do it I decided to start the stitch in the middle of the thread, with one half of the length set aside for the overcast stitch, and the other for the blanket stitch. By wrapping the second thread around the first as I went I was able to do both stitches at once, using only one needle, and never needing to switch the needle to the overcast thread at all.

I like this ever so much better than plain blanket stitch, and doing that extra twist does not really slow down the process at all. I did this using a thin single ply wool yarn that is easy to twist a new length onto (which is good as one needs to use fairly short lengths while stitching because otherwise it bunches up and breaks), so now it looks like I did the whole length of the project with a single continuous thread. Once I work my way around to the beginning I will loop the last stitch through the start and then tie it off--so there will be only ONE lose end for the whole project to weave back through the stitches.
kareina: (me)
This has been yet another busy week full of progress on projects in addition to the normal round of social activities.

We have nearly finished a new wooden ice chest to take with us to Double Wars (we leave on Friday)--my old wooden ice chest is in quite bad shape from years of heavy use and several intercontinental shipping experiences, so it is time to replace it.

I finished nålbinding my sun hat, felted it, and have sewn it to a frame to dry in the shape I wish it to be. Sadly, I forgot to get photos of "before"--it was huge, floppy, and the brim was very, very ruffled--it covered my entire head with folds hanging loosely to my shoulders. After felting the brim was still ruffled, and was floppier than I want it to be, so I dipped it in water containing cornstarch, ran it through the centrifuge in the laundry room, and sewed it to the frame, where it sits yet. The sewing process got the brim to flatten out and become large--it now looks very much like the straw hat I had to leave behind when I left Italy because I didn't have space to bring it on the plane, and couldn't pack it safely into boxes to be shipped. Hopefully it will still look like that when I take it off the frame.

I have managed to accomplish some armour repair that needed doing, and even cleaned off some sword marks from the front of my shield. I had to, really. One of the black sword marks just happened to be positioned over the closed eye of the sleeping cat, exactly perpendicular to and centered upon the eye, so that it looked like the cat had and X instead of an eye--just like a cartoon dead creature. Very funny looking, but so not acceptable! (again, I didn't think to take a photo--somehow I never do. Then again, do I really want photographic evidence of a dead cat on my shield?).

We got the last of the fitting done for my 12th Century underdress done--there is just a bit of seam finishing left to do on that one. I did this one with the really, really long sleeves that runch up on the forearms. The upper arm is only just exactly wide enough to put my arm in it, which puts the square underarm gusset exactly in my underarm, giving me a good fit *and* full range of motion. We got the body to be exactly the same diameter as my ribs just under my breasts, which means that the gown is fully supporting--I can jump while wearing it and my breasts don't go anywhere. Yay to not needing to wear a bra! When I take in my bliaut so that it, too, fits properly across the shoulders and ribs this outfit is going to be so comfortable. Granted, it will then be very important to neither loose or gain weight in such a way as my diameter over ribs or upper arms changes, but since I am quite happy with my current shape this should be easy enough to manage (not losing any mass shouldn't be an issue--there isn't a whole lot available to loose over my ribs, anyway).

On Thursday we went to a sewing workshop with the local Folk Music and Dance group. The project of the evening was a traditional man's shirt, so that [livejournal.com profile] archinonlive and the other musicians will have appropriate costume for upcoming performances. I was very delighted to see that fashions in Northern Sweden never really changed. While the shirt cuffs are late period in design, with the full sleeve gathered to a buttoned cuff, the torso and sleeves are a straight rectangles, with a square underarm gusset--the same style they have been using for many centuries! We did take photos of some of the completed shirts that were available as models, and of the cutting pattern we settled on--used every scrap of that bit of wool--it was necessary to take one of the underarm gussets from the neck hole, because the end of the fabric wasn't cut straight at the store. I might make time to post those photos another day.

Friday we had a couple of people over for a gaming night as part of a mini gaming convention that a friend of ours runs. Sadly, our weekend was so booked we got to play in only the one game, but it was quite fun. We played While the World Ends, which was written by the guy who organized this mini con. This is the game we played at Gothcon early this month that I so enjoyed. It was fun this time, too )

This makes twice now that I have played this game, and I really enjoy it. It is much more like reading a book (or even watching a movie) than traditional role playing adventure games, but it is a shared activity with friends. Even though I think of myself as a reader not a writer, with the formal structure of the game it is easy to come up with things my character might do towards achieving his goals, and so it is easy to set the scene. I recommend it to anyone who enjoys gaming, story telling, reading, and just spending time with friends

Saturday morning was an SCA bbq and fighter practice. After practice the local knight authorized me, so if he has done whatever paperwork goes with that I am good to fight at Double War next week. In the evening we had a party for the choir. Not many of us could make it, which made it a fun night, as we were able to play games )

Sunday we didn't have fighter practice, since it was on Saturday this week, so we used the time for projects, and also skipped the folk music session in favour of project time. However, we did attend folk dancing in the evening. This is the last practice before our performance, the day after we return from double war, so we had live music and everything, and we ran through the performance set three full times, working out last minute details to make it all flow smoothly and prettily. I also picked up the costume I will borrow for the show, which will need slight modification to get the vest to fit me properly.

My goal to pedal at least 10 km a day, five days a week is progressing nicely. I didn't actually manage a ride a week ago Friday because [livejournal.com profile] archinonlive had the day off of work and I spend the time with him instead, but the week before that I did an extra 10 km, so it has all averaged out. I did manage this Friday, but only barely--I got distracted actually working on that paper from my research, and suddenly it was 16:00 and I hadn't gone yet, and it was necessary to start some soup to feed myself and the gamers. Luckily, about the time I went to the kitchen to start cooking [livejournal.com profile] archinonlive came home from work, so I left him to cook the soup, and I went for a quick lap around the lake (which is not quite 10 km, but I had done a bit more than 10 the day before), getting back just as the food was ready.

In other news, I have booked my tickets back to Australia--I will be flying on 30 June, the day my visitor visa expires here (assuming that there are no volcanically caused flight cancellations then, of course). I land in Sydney on 1 July, which is a Friday. I still need to book travel for within Australia, but the tentative plan is to head straight to Canberra to head that Monday to the Swedish Embassy there to submit my visa application to move to Sweden to live permanently with [livejournal.com profile] archinonlive (which paperwork *must* be submitted in one's home country--one may not apply for such a visa from within Sweden). Once the paperwork is filed with the Embassy I plan to visit Melbourne to see my mother and step-sister and her family (mom will be visiting Australia for around a month, so that timing is nice). Then I will go to Tassie to await the visa approval. While there I plan to meet with my PhD advisor and finish up paper(s) for publication. I have no idea yet when I shall be able to return to Sweden--the paperwork processing on their end could take a couple of weeks, or many months. I will be renting a room from [livejournal.com profile] mushroom_maiden while her usual housemate is in Iceland. With luck the timing will work out for me to head back to Sweden before the housemate returns from Iceland.
kareina: (Default)
I have been meaning to post about my adventures over easter weekend, but haven't spent all that much time on the computer since then, so haven't gotten to it. However, I know that I have taken too much time to get to it because my mother sent me a facebook message asking about the trip. (Note: oddly enough, I can't actually access FB today, so I couldn't reply to her there if I wanted to. Is anyone else having issues with FB?)

Easter weekend adventures, including a train trip, family visits, and a gaming con )It wasn't until Sunday evening that we finally got around to actually playing in a role-playing game instead of board games and card games. Part of that was the fact that I am limited to games running in English, and not everyone is interested in running them in English, partly because we were having fun with what we were doing, so didn't really look all that hard for role-playing games. But since it is a role-playing game con, we thought it would be fun to participate in one.

The one we played is called "While the World Ends" (or "Medan världen går under" in Swedish). It was written by a friend of ours, so we travelled 19 hours each way to play a game with someone who lives within walking distance. However, the game was much fun, and totally worth the trip. a description of the game mechanics for this game plus some of our story )

This was my first experience in "story based" roleplaying games, and I quite liked it. Unlike traditional role playing games, which have complex rules (usually focused on combat), this game had very little need for dice, and only six-sided dice were needed at all. The emphasis was on creating an interesting story. I have always described myself as a reader, not a writer, so I was a bit sceptical before the game began. However, as it turns out, the cooperative nature and the formula for the start makes it easy for even non-writers to participate in the creation of the story and to enjoy the process. I started out content to let the others come up with the first scenes, but once I'd seen how it worked it was easy to become inspired as to what sort of things my character might try to do to achieve his goal of getting the job in the lab, and then suggest scenes in which he could try them. Perhaps all those years of reading have paid off.
I bought some books )

The train ride home was just as nice as the trip down, and involved some hanging out and chatting (I am rather enjoying being involved with someone with whom I can spend nearly every waking hour of a long weekend, and we still have plenty to talk about on the journey home), some reading, and lots and lots of sleeping.
this week's adventures and fitness goals )

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