Tuesday, January 29, 2008

What to say.....?

I don't know exactly what to say, but I figure it's been long enough, that if anyone even still bothers to check, I should write something. So let's cover the basics: work, school, SCA and home life.

Work has picked up. They are finally starting to utilize me, and that feels good. I still have an amazing amount of do nothing time, but that's more my choice than theirs as there are projects I could be working on, but I'm avoiding them. We've been building up to a major server redo (bringing a server up from Windows 2000 to Windows 2003 and SQL Server 2000 to SQL Server 2005). That started today and will take most of this week (and most of Saturday) to get worked out and cut back over. So far it's going well (knock on wood), but I'm still waiting for the other shoe to fall. I've read several articles that have suggested waiting until the next full release of SQL before upgrading, but the powers that be are worried about Microsoft discontinuing support of SQL 2000 sometime this year so we are going ahead with the upgrade. It's only one of our servers, but it's a major one, and we're using this time to also test our Disaster Recovery methods (databases being passed to a virtualized server from backups and changing ODBC drivers on client machines, it's a relatively painless solution).

School. Well, what can I say about school? I'm down to two requirements. I need to work my way through an individualized instruction of a web development class, and I need to do my thesis. The web class is killing me. It's something I've never done. It was the one thing that I was looking forward to learning in the whole program, and now I have to take it as an independent study! I think I really would have preferred a classroom environment on this one. I suck at the web! I always really appreciated the talent that the guys at my old job had for putting together websites. They had an artistic eye, and they knew how to make the tags do what they wanted them to. I, decidedly, do NOT have an artistic eye, and I can't make the damn tags do anything I want them to. To top it off, I'm basically trying to learn all this stuff on my own. Thanks to one friend, he pointed me to www.w3schools.com which has been a wonderful resource. If I've learned anything, it's thanks to that site. As for my thesis, well, I've had some preliminary discussions via email with the professor who I would like to be my thesis advisor, and I'm going to try and have a literary review completed prior to the end of February. I'm not sure whether or not I can get the thesis done by the end of the semester, but I'm going to try.

SCA. Yeah, more of the same. Last Sunday was a practice. Now, I've been riding the exercise bike in the basement three to four times a week since the begining of the year. I was hoping that my stamina would have increased, but it didn't. I got the chance to honestly teach for a little while at the begining of practice. I showed someone the basics of the "wrap" shot. Imagine throwing a sword blow at someone's leg, then at the last moment, you turn your wrist and rotate the sword so that you hit them with the back blade instead of the front of the blade. What you wind up doing is hitting the person in the back of the leg with the sword instead of the front or side. That's the basic of a "wrap". There are several variations, and I showed someone most of what I knew about them. There were three Knights standing there, watching me teach this person, and they didn't interupt to say that I was wrong on anything, and one of them actually said that I was a good teacher. I was pretty happy about that.

The first half of practice I faced some of the same people I always face. I wasn't happy with my performance at all. Halfway through practice though, something interesting happened. A group of 5 or 6 fighters from a neighboring barony showed up. I actually got a chance to fight some people who I don't fight all the time. I did fairly well against them. One thing I did wrong though. I faced their toughest competitor last. I was completely out of gas when I was fighting him, and he tore me up hard. They said that they were planning on coming out again sometime. I'll have to make sure I fight that guy first. They were all very friendly, and seemed like great people to have around. I look forward to crossing swords again.

On a completely different topic related to the SCA, I've had another example of how me saying "I suck" (which I do) can effect other people. On one of the online forums I read, someone asked the question "What are your goals". One of the Knights responded that he wanted to

"Each day I ask that I can keep
fooling my squires and everyone else
for just one more day. "


Now, this is a Knight who I respect greatly. His presentation on the field is perfect. He is humble. He is witty. He is soft spoken. He is honorable. This Knight is the example in our Kingdom for what it is to be Knightly. When I read that he thought he needed to fool people, I nearly screamed. I typed a response to the forum, but I thought that would be too public. I began to type an email response to him personally, but I shouldn't question his own opinion of himself, but I was honestly mad at him for not seeing in himself, what everyone else sees every time he takes the field or talks to you (then another light bulb went off....hmmmm....maybe I might be a wee bit too hard on myself as well). I'm not sure if he drinks, but I owe him a beer. I want to sit by a campfire and tell him all the wonderful images and stories I know of him. I want to reassure him of what I and many others feel. That he is truly a Knight.

I know this is getting long, but bear with me. One or two more stories to tell about the SCA. Twice within the last month, I have been complimented by people in a way that touched me deeply. I was riding in a car with one of our "newer" fighters (he's been fighting a year and a half, and he is far from a newbie). I stated that I would like to get Knighted someday. He said that he would like to see that. I asked him what it mattered to him. He told me that I was one of the people who represented the best of what a knight should be (I'm paraphrasing here). He said that I was kind with everyone. I was generous with everyone. I was willing to train anyone. He said that I had impressed him and that he was trying to follow MY example in how to deal with people. He has no idea how much that touched me.

The other story, was completely unexpected. On that same online forum I mentioned earlier, a user from my Kingdom posted a question. He asked, in each Kingdom, who are the unbelts that best represent Knighthood without considering prowess. In other words, who are the guys that if they could get their prowess up to snuff would make excellent Knights. Several names, from several kingdoms were mentioned and discussed, and no one from our Kingdom responded. The gentleman who originally posted the question responded that he was surprised that no one from our Kingdom responded, so he would let people know who he was thinking of when he asked the question. He said that the one person that came to mind for him from our Kingdom was me. I was literally blown away! This is a guy who I spent some time with maybe 15 years ago back when I was in college. He lives on the other side of the Kingdom from me, and I haven't had any consistent contact with him since then. I've seen him on the side of the field, and I've always been pleasant, but I can't for the life of me figure out how I made that impression on him. I stood a little taller that day. I owe him some scotch (I'm pretty sure he prefers it to beer). I guess, in one way or another, I've made an impression on some people. The lesson to take away from all of this is that maybe, just maybe I could be a Knight if I could get my stuff together on the fighting side of life.

Finally, the home life. My daughter is now almost 17 months old (I can't believe that). She's walking all over the place. She's climbing stairs. She's exerting her independence (this is a bad sign, she's not even two and she wants to be independent). She's also clumsy as all get out. She is constantly falling face first into our hardwood floors. She currently has two nice sized goose eggs on her forehead. I know this is a phase, and that she will eventually find her balance and grace (God I hope so, I really don't want people thinking I beat my kid!). I've said it before, and I'll say it again. I don't care how bad a day I've had, if I come home and see her smile, and hear her giggle, the rest of the world just doesn't matter. Two weekends ago, we were at a baby shower for some friends of ours who are adopting a child. It was more of a big party than a baby shower. They held it in a fire hall. Anyway, at one point, my daughter was overly tired. I sat Indian style on the floor, wrapped her in a blanket, put her in my lap and gently rocked her. It was a cold concrete floor, and my legs soon fell asleep. The pins and needles were killing me, but if my daughter was going to let me hold her there, I wasn't moving for anything. I wouldn't give that moment up. Those moments make me smile and warm my heart.

Sorry it's such a long post. I should really write more often (and more focused). If you've read this far, then you're crazy. I've come to realize that this blog is as much for me as it is for anyone else. It puts some sign posts in my mind that can direct me back to fond memories when I go back and read. Thanks for taking an interest in my memories.