A "G-Rated Journal" That Even My Mother Can Read (because she does!)
Effervescence is a state of mind. It's about choosing to bring sunshine to the day.
Every person I meet matters.
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Daddy-do and me, 2010
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Class, Yule, and Bday dinner
Thu Sep 22 - I never did mention in yesterday's journal entry how my class has been going at work. The book that I was working on is for a two-day class, so I've been in the classroom yesterday and today at work.
The best thing about today's time in class is that I've been able to get screen shots from the labs that didn't work last week. We found out that we needed another piece of software installed, it had to be an even newer version that the instructor last used, and we came up with a few other creative ideas. So as we've been discovering and inventing better labs for the students, I've been able to get every step-by-step graphic, save it over the network to my lab machine at my desk, and I'm already ahead of the game for improving my book from it's current Beta version to the final published "Gold" version.
* * * * *
So, something else that I forgot to mention in yesterday's journal entry. I've accepted the position to be the head-organizer for a "Yule" event in December.
You see, the SCA is very specifically an historical re-enactment/re-creation society that choses to include little or NO religion from history. Yes, religion was a big part of the middle ages, but it's really only treated like a research topic in the SCA. This has both some benefits and drawbacks, most significantly I think people lose out by just never learning about how the church(es) or religion(s) of the day affected daily life, politics, etc. We seem to have a generic sense about its effect on life in the middle ages, but it's mostly ignored in the context of our groups.
(This also means that I have so many close friends from such a wide variety of personal religious beliefs, which makes for interesting conversations. I don't think I know anyone outside the SCA who is exposed to this *many* different personal belief systems and faiths, or certainly they haven't become close friends with them all.)
So in practice, sometimes it seems like we go out of our way to avoid the appearance of some religious activities or naming conventions. Instead of celebrating "Christmas" (or "Hannukah") we celebrate "Yule" or "12th Night" in our group. [Of course, "Yule" *is* specific to some of my friends' personal religious beliefs, but because it "sounds" neutral to some people... well, you know.]
Anyways, a friend was the "autocrat" or head organizing chick for the Yule celebration in my new Barony (the geographical group that I just moved into), but real life is intervening and she had to step down from the role of autocrat. The seneschal (which is like the club president) dropped me an email, asking if I would consider stepping into the role. He and several other leaders in the group would be available to assist me, much of the work had already been done, and mostly I would be just relieving over-worked people from doing the job.
After taking some time to dig around for details and prepare myself with questions, we had a lovely chat on the phone last night and I went ahead and took the plunge, and accepted the position. Today I've taken some time to respond to all the organizing staff, give them all my contact information, and am already taking emails and phone calls from the staff who are running various parts of the event.
I'm looking forward to participating in a greater capacity with my new local group, and I really hope this chance to assist goes well.
* * * * *
Finally, this evening I'm driving up to my "home shire" for our quarterly birthday celebration. I noted jokingly that our shire is "awash with Virgo's" recently, but this is not so far from the truth. I expect that 8-10 birthday guys & gals will show up at the dinner tonight (which means we have even more people with July/August/September birthdays amongst the folks who are unable to join us for dinner). I just hope that I (a) get out of work in time to miss *some* of the heaviest traffic and (b) I have enough birthday cards in my box of cards for everyone. I grabbed one of my stationery/letter boxes as I ran out the door this morning, and still haven't had time to pick through the cards I already have on hand to see how many I still need to purchase before dinner.
* * * * *
Recently Listening to: Poe "Haunting"
The best thing about today's time in class is that I've been able to get screen shots from the labs that didn't work last week. We found out that we needed another piece of software installed, it had to be an even newer version that the instructor last used, and we came up with a few other creative ideas. So as we've been discovering and inventing better labs for the students, I've been able to get every step-by-step graphic, save it over the network to my lab machine at my desk, and I'm already ahead of the game for improving my book from it's current Beta version to the final published "Gold" version.
* * * * *
So, something else that I forgot to mention in yesterday's journal entry. I've accepted the position to be the head-organizer for a "Yule" event in December.
You see, the SCA is very specifically an historical re-enactment/re-creation society that choses to include little or NO religion from history. Yes, religion was a big part of the middle ages, but it's really only treated like a research topic in the SCA. This has both some benefits and drawbacks, most significantly I think people lose out by just never learning about how the church(es) or religion(s) of the day affected daily life, politics, etc. We seem to have a generic sense about its effect on life in the middle ages, but it's mostly ignored in the context of our groups.
(This also means that I have so many close friends from such a wide variety of personal religious beliefs, which makes for interesting conversations. I don't think I know anyone outside the SCA who is exposed to this *many* different personal belief systems and faiths, or certainly they haven't become close friends with them all.)
So in practice, sometimes it seems like we go out of our way to avoid the appearance of some religious activities or naming conventions. Instead of celebrating "Christmas" (or "Hannukah") we celebrate "Yule" or "12th Night" in our group. [Of course, "Yule" *is* specific to some of my friends' personal religious beliefs, but because it "sounds" neutral to some people... well, you know.]
Anyways, a friend was the "autocrat" or head organizing chick for the Yule celebration in my new Barony (the geographical group that I just moved into), but real life is intervening and she had to step down from the role of autocrat. The seneschal (which is like the club president) dropped me an email, asking if I would consider stepping into the role. He and several other leaders in the group would be available to assist me, much of the work had already been done, and mostly I would be just relieving over-worked people from doing the job.
After taking some time to dig around for details and prepare myself with questions, we had a lovely chat on the phone last night and I went ahead and took the plunge, and accepted the position. Today I've taken some time to respond to all the organizing staff, give them all my contact information, and am already taking emails and phone calls from the staff who are running various parts of the event.
I'm looking forward to participating in a greater capacity with my new local group, and I really hope this chance to assist goes well.
* * * * *
Finally, this evening I'm driving up to my "home shire" for our quarterly birthday celebration. I noted jokingly that our shire is "awash with Virgo's" recently, but this is not so far from the truth. I expect that 8-10 birthday guys & gals will show up at the dinner tonight (which means we have even more people with July/August/September birthdays amongst the folks who are unable to join us for dinner). I just hope that I (a) get out of work in time to miss *some* of the heaviest traffic and (b) I have enough birthday cards in my box of cards for everyone. I grabbed one of my stationery/letter boxes as I ran out the door this morning, and still haven't had time to pick through the cards I already have on hand to see how many I still need to purchase before dinner.
* * * * *
Recently Listening to: Poe "Haunting"
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