Guy Fawkes Night

Remember, remember...

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Now playing: Ludwig van Beethoven, Philadelphia Orchestra & Riccardo Muti - Symphony No. 5 in C Minor, Op. 67: I. Allegro Con Brio
via FoxyTunes

KC Renaissance Faire

A few weeks ago, I went to the Ren Faire in Kansas City with my father and brother. We've been going for the past seven years or so, and the last few times I've dressed up for it. I'm currently working on my chainmail hauberk, but it's only about a quarter done, so I borrowed my friend's for the weekend. I made the tabard (the cloth part that goes over the armor) myself, all stitched by hand. I usually tell people that I prefer the rustic look it gives, but in reality I'm just scared to use the antique sewing machine my grandmother passed down.

The aforementioned friend and I planned out this outfit a few years ago, based off the Templar knight uniform. We ordered matching helmets, gloves, belts, and shields. The plan was for both of us to go at the same time, but schedules haven't worked out, which is fine since I'm pretty lazy about working on my chainmail.

I definitely have an elevated level of respect for medieval knights. This was hot and heavy and uncomfortable pretty much the whole time I was wearing it. The helmet alone weighed ten pounds, the hauberk was forty, and with the sword and shield I was carting around a total of sixty pounds of steel (with a long-sleeved shirt, pants, leather boots and gloves on as well). Still, I lasted about three and a half hours, at which point my arms were going numb from the pressure of the chainmail. I'll have to do some research and see if I can find a way to distribute the weight a bit better.
At around that point, we stopped at one of the clothing stores, and I bought a doublet, which I had been wanting for a while anyway. I ran (well, walked rather slowly) back out to the car, swapped shirts, and put on my hat. This outfit was quite a bit more comfortable.

Next year, I want to have my hauberk completed, as well as a coif (a chainmail hood) and a blue tabard with a fleur-de-lis design. The leather store where we ordered our belts has a neat set of ringmail greaves and bracers that I think would fit nicely. It'll be a ton of work, but I'm pretty excited about it. Maybe I'll post progress here to keep me motivated.

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Now playing: Queen - Brighton Rock
via FoxyTunes

Moving Back to Blogger

I'm temporarily moving back to hosting this blog on Blogspot. There were a few things I didn't like about hosting it on a separate server, mainly the fact that paging went away. I've also updated the template (using one of the provided layouts at the moment) and added a few neat widgets. You might notice the Twitter update at the top of the sidebar - I've finally broken down and started an account. We'll see how it goes.

As far as the future is concerned, I'm thinking about finally making my site. Right now I'm leaning towards Python and Django, but we'll see. Short-term, I want to create my own template or at least heavily edit an existing one. Also, I'm not sure if my feed has changed because of the switch; guess I'll find out after I post this.

In other news, I recently attended KaizenConf, which was awesome. I'll be either posting a recap here or on The Pirates' Code. Maybe both. To sum up in a word though: enlightening. And the number of people in attendance who owned iPhones was staggering. But seriously, it was the most amazing event I've ever been part of.

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Now playing: The Raconteurs - Five On the Five
via FoxyTunes