You cannot describe train surfing deaths as tragedy

Noticed in the news today that some son of some old sports star apparently died as a result of train surfing.
And they are calling it a Tragedy?

NO - It's called stupidity, or Natural Selection (Darwinism in action).

Less stupid genes to be passed on to the next generation.

The tragedy is all the various passengers, driver, and emergency services personnel who have to witness and/or clean up the mess afterwards.

IDIOT!!!

Southern Region thoughts

Well - it hasn't gone away yet - and I suspect it won't, but I also don't think it will go anywhere short-term.

It is a little disconcerting that the powers that be behind this are content to disregard some facts, and then use other facts from a less successful poll to push their concerns.

The number of people that voted, in total, in their recent poll was 79.

Of which a total of 20 were from Stormhold or its groups. We were not told which way those 20 voted.
However, following the meeting when this first came up, we had in Stormhold, the following are the results that I passed along - quite detailed as you can see (in italics below).

---------------
Hi guys - busy personal life leading to delays, but here are the numbers.

Question: "Is a SP something that SH needs to pursue and work towards at this time?"

In Favour - 7 members, 0 non-members (made up as follows:)
Members present in favour - 6
Members proxies in favour - 1
Non-Members present in favour - 0
Non-Members proxies in favour - 0

Against - 27 members, 5 non-members (made up as follows:)
Members present against - 15
Members proxies against - 12
Non-Members present against - 2
Non-Members proxies against - 3

Abstentions
members present - 2
non-members present - 1

# of Peers involved 11 (9 against, 1 in favour, 1 abstained)
Members - present - 5 (4 against, 1 in favour)
Members - proxy - 5 (all against)
Non-Members - present - 1 (abstained)

Very clear mandate to me as Baron (official or unofficial as you like it).

In service.

Hanbal
--------

At this stage, I still stick with the mandate I was provided by our populace.

Whilst there is quite a bit of regional identity within the Victorian groups, I don't see much at all within the region, except for the GSG.

I still have yet to see what advantages will be experienced by the Victorian Groups.

I had discussions with various peoples at Rowany Festival this year, both as a Peer of the realm, Baron of Stormhold and a free thinking SCA person - most of these discussions were with people from outside the group, and the general consensus was that the push was from a small frogs, big pond syndrome - make the pond smaller, the frogs see themselves as bigger.
I do see some of this as well.

Not only would the region need to be strong, but the Kingdom as well, if such a move was to occur and be healthy for the Kingdom.

And we are still young. We haven't been a Kingdom for even 10 years yet - so I'm really not sure what the rush is.

Anyhow - for the moment, I will sit to the side and listen to the discussions, supporting my people in their endeavours to discover clear answers to basic questions (which are not forthcoming or clear when they do).

The Lion sleeps - but beware ye who prods it too hard with a stick.

Catching up - The knee and the surgery to come

Sorry for the delay in writing.

Okay - at the fighter auction tournament at Easter 2009, during the first round my right foot slipped during an attack, then caught on caused the final twinge to my right knee that was in fact (but unknown at the time) the final moment of my Anterior Crucial Ligament (ACL).

Initially I felt a short stabbing pain, stopped, tested the knee - felt able to stand and no real pain, so continued the bout.

I then endured a much sharper and lasting pain that dropped me out of the tournament. With assistance my armour was removed, my knee was bound and iced by the St Johns people and I was out of the tournament.

I rested the knee for the remainder of Festival, was assisted in the drive home by Ryan (of Saarlands) who came with me (and almost destroyed my gear box by his complete lack of skill).

I went and consulted a general GP shortly after returning to Melbourne - who referred me to a Physio.

The Physio started me on an exercise regime, slowly healing the knee - he was initially concerned that something serious might be damaged. However, the knee healed well and strengthened with the rest & specific exercises given to me.

After roughly 8 weeks I ceased to see the Physio - he suggested if I did have any problems then I might need to see a specialist.

There were no issues for a month or so - then a single incident with a jolt of pain, that quickly faded. This was not the last - over the coming months they occured more often and eventually too many to disregard any longer.

Having lost the paperwork with the details of the specialist, I tracked down the Physio (who had changed practices in the mean time), got the name of the Specialist he suggested and contact that Dr accordingly.

Saw him in November 2009, where he examined the knee and came away with him certain that the only problem was some torn cartilage - the knee operating normally in all other ways that he could tell. - Unfortunately, he was wrong.

Mid December, had a key-hole knee surgery (Arthroscopic) where he fixed the torn cartilage, and discovered that my muscles were masking a lack of a ACL (Anterior Crucial Ligament) - a very important ligament that controls and allows twisting actions of the knee.

To replace it is a Knee Reconstruction Surgery (the major, invasive kind).

BUGGER!!!

Took out Private Health Insurance the next day, and started counting time, waiting for the 12 month exclusion period for existing conditions to pass.

So - current plan, will be having the operation in mid December 2010, with anticipated return to active combat being November / December 2011 - probably William Marshal Tournament 2011.

Until then, a waiting game, with no running on bad ground, no sports, and lots of caution.
Oh well, thems the breaks.

The good news is as long as I follow all instructions it should be back to good as new.

Then back to fighting, finally get the Knight hood and then win the Kingdom...
(cause you gotta have goals).

Making spoons from Horn - part 1

So - the next art & craft project I have been meaning to get around to is Horn working. Whilst a drinking horn is nice - I am wanting to make other things out of the horn, and thanks to Sandy of Frojel, I now have a few to play with.

So my first project was to make a spoon - but due to having the 14th Century Mongol persona, I figured it would be good to have a chinese style spoon (deep, almost a mini bowl).

I started with a horn, which I cut in half (with the end piece pictured, which is solid). I used a table drop saw to cut the horn (being very careful not to cut myself).

This is what I ended up with.

You can see the end piece that will probably be cut in thin slices, which can then be used as buttons - with the very end piece split length wise to form several toggles (I will drill required holes using a Dremel).

As you can see - this has a lovely bowl shape in the middle and some of that chinese spoon look in the natural shape.
I'm not really sure if the Chinese & Mongols did make spoons out of cow horn, but I know that the Mongols especially never wasted any parts of the animals - so its seems likely (especially when the Vikings were - and created the country / region of Rusland - which the Mongols successfully invaded and took over.

Here you can see the current progress - the piece that I've been working is on the bottom, with the untouched other half of the horn above.

So - I worked the horn using a bench grinder (initially I started using a sander but was not getting very far in a hurry). The bench grinder worked a treat.

Now its not finished by any part of the imagination, but you can see it is now a visible spoon that just needs some refinement.

You can see from this side on picture the nice bowl shape that has been formed (I heated the front with a heat gun and bent it up to give a front lip.

You can see that when the top is smoothed across the top (flat) you will get a nice, chinese style spoon that will carry a decent mouthful of soup / stew / whatever.

You can see that I have also tapered the handle.

Here you can see the underside of the spoon. After the initial grinding I have worked slower and more carefully - trying to remove the major tool marks.

I will work it a little more with the tools, to get it right - and then use fine sandpaper to finish it off.

It has been suggested to wax it when finished - any thoughts on this or other comments appreciated.

Pewter casting - SUCCESS

Firstly, my thanks to those who have advised me, both in person & online with regards to this.

Today I have succeeded in casting several finished coins - with Traditional Chinese text front & back. On one side I have 2 characters which are the translation of "Purity" (which is the original meaning of Hanbal in Arabic). On the other side, the coins read Eighth Baron.

You'll have to wait for the photos till after our investiture - going to try & limit who sees them beforehand.

Now I just have make a whole heap of them.

Was very chuffed at the end of the day when I finally realised & have learned & succeeded at a craft that Mum hasn't tried (for those that don't know - she has tried & done well at just about any craft you can think of - but (and I checked) she has never tried pewter casting.

Now I'll have to work out what my next pewter token will be - after investiture.

Pewter casting, part 2

Well, I am now most of the way towards having some Ancient Chinese style pewter "rope money" coins.
As you can see, I have started penciling the chinese characters that will be on the coins. At this stage, the plan is to have "Hanbal" on one side and "Eighth Baron" on the other. On the right side above is where I am currently writing the Eighth Baron text (translated off the web - traditional Chinese - probably not perfect but good enough). Below are examples of the progress of my carving. Please note that for all of them, the spru is the top (even if pictured around the wrong way).

The first, which look like a pair of Angels wings, showed that the coin carved area wasn't deep enough.

The second was after more carving, today, and shows more of an idea of what I am aiming for. You will note the square in the middle is still quite large. Still a bit too thin though.

The 3rd coin shows further work on deepening the carved area - complete coin but surface still bearing many tool marks. You can also see that the square in the middle has been reduced in size.

The 4th & 5th pictures are the front & back of the last coin poured today.

You can see that I now have a defined rim around the coin both front & back, as well as around the square in the middle.

I am now going to add chinese characters front & back. Ambitious for my 2nd piece ever, but I think I will succeed. I'm running out of time to do it all over again - as I need to have the coins completed for our Baronial Investiture.

Pewter casting

Ok - a while ago I decided it would be cool to learn a new craft - but I wanted something that was of interest to me. I also wanted something that would be inline with my natural skills - ability to use controlled violence & tools.

Pewter casting in soapstone seemed the right direction.

Recently I obtained some soapstone (thanks to Bryce & Ant). I then spoke with them & Sandy about methods of carving & pouring.

3 weekends ago I set myself a task to make a simple coin with the letter FY (Flying Ypotryll) on one side.
I succeeded.

The front & back of the coin are shown here, you can see that the 2 carved halves didn't quite match and you can also see where I filed back the back of the coin where the spru poured into the mould. The coin's are silver in colour - the gold colouring in the pictures is due to the light where I took the photos.

Unfortunately, I destroyed the mould in the process of getting the coin out, as I created the spru (the tube where you pour the molten pewter down to the mould) through one side of the soapstone, rather than down the join in the soapstone. To get the coin out I broke that side of the mould around the spru & got the pewter out, but the soapstone was damaged beyond usability, as you can see from the picture included.

I did however discover that while you can cut soapstone with a hacksaw - it is much easier to work with it along the grain - so I was spliting the lump of soapstone with a woodsplitter - then sanding the soapstone back to flat (ish).

The next challenge is to make ancienct Chinese rope money (round coins with a square hole) with text on one side.

I started this process on the weekend just gone - taking it slow & steady with my carving. The nature of the pieces meant that I didn't have a lot of room for a long spru - but am working around this issue. Currently doing all my carving in one face only - but will need to thicken the coin - will also enlarge & widen the spru to allow the molten pewter

Partway there - but going well. More to follow...