June 3rd, 2010 by Jason Lewis
I have been working on week one of the DFW Schola Saint George curriculum and I have to say coupled with school it is hard to get through on your own. I am looking ahead to my testing requirements and it seems that you will have to have another person who knows the plays in order to test for Compagno in the Schola. This is okay of course because I am almost positive I can get Cai to help me with my testing portions.
I am really enjoying this and will try to post up my practice notes and things I am struggling with so that i will have them to go back on and look at when I have time. This will give me time to study those things with which I struggle most.
Anyway, I hope to eventually have a study group oing here in Wichita, that would be a great thing.
Tags: fiore, SiTH
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December 29th, 2009 by Jason Lewis
So I have been sitting around feeling sorry for myself for the past couple months. I am not exactly sure why, I just am. I started reading the 7 habits of highly effective people about 3 weeks ago and it is amazing the things that you find out about yourself in a book like that. I am reading it all the way through and then will go back and work each habit individually, I think that is the best thing for me.
I have also started thinking more about the way I want my kit to look and the persona I portray. I like the 14th century, I love the full case armour and stuff, but I am seriously considering a 1320-1330′s era person instead. It’s more chainmail and a Sugarloaf Helmet. I like this idea because it is something that is not done much, most people gravitate toward the later 14th century. Time will tell.
I am doing Couch25K this week and will add in more running and weights next week, I think that is the best course of action for me at this point as Thursday will be a bad food day for me and my back is incredibly sore this morning. I think I will train more like an MMA fighter then anything else because that is as close to what we do that I can get without developing a new workout routine on my own, which may happen eventually.
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November 23rd, 2009 by Jason Lewis
So I am going to start working on my new kit. I decided on 660 years ago today which makes it November 23, 1349. I am posting this so I can keep a link to the guy I would like to make my helmet.
http://forums.armourarchive.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=105649&sid=b05776b3ad55613d26036a7ee39e965d
It is my hope to be able to make a bunch of the stuff myself we will see how that goes. Anyway, here we go..
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November 19th, 2009 by Jason Lewis
To make my own 14th century armour or to buy it. There are many pros and cons of each, instant gratification being the biggest pro of buying it. But I think over the long run I should make it piece by piece. This would teach me a marketable skill as well as giving me a nice set of period-ish armour at a very low cost.
There are a lot of things to consider like a clean garage and tools that I need to make this happen, but I think this would be the best bet.
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September 16th, 2009 by Jason Lewis
Today is the 8th anniversary of your death my son. In the past 8 years I have come to understand a great many things and to learn a lot about life, love, and death. What I have not learned is how to be a father, that lesson was stolen from me. When you were taken from me, it “broke” me in a way that I can never repair. The love I had for you is just as strong today as it has always been, yet I feel like I should be in a different place in my life.
These are the times I was supposed to be teaching you how to be a good man, a good husband, a good father, a good friend, and a productive member of the community. I should have been helping you get through a broken heart, I should have been the voice of reason when your mind has flights of fancy. I should have been giving you the stability, discipline, and friendship that only a father can offer, instead that was all taken from us.
Know my son that there is seldom a day that you don’t go through my mind. There is hardly a time when I do not think of you when something special happens or I see something beautiful. Your laugh, like a soothing waterfall to my ears, still echos in my mind and the perfect sound of you calling me Daddy still warms my soul.
I do not know what will happen in the future, but I do know I will start living my life to the fullest when I have fulfilled my vow of grieving. Today, as every other day, I miss you more then I can ever express, I love you, and I will see you again someday. Rest well my son.
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September 3rd, 2009 by Jason Lewis
I have now accepted that this is most likely not my path. I am unable to travel enough to ever even get Fyrded, let alone make it to Knighthood one day. I will be contented with learning to make armour, spending time with my wife, and working on my house.
Reality slapping you in the face is a sobering experience. I will strove to become Knightly, but my dream of one day being a Knight in the SCA, is just that.
Tags: enlightenment, knightly, virtue, warrior
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September 1st, 2009 by Jason Lewis
Found this on the Armour Archive:
Æiric Ørvender
In Arms:
- To fight at your utmost in every battle, to give your all to every opponent.
- To Offer no insult to someone who may be inferior in prowess by ‘toning down’ a fight, unless it is a ‘teaching fight’
- To teach and train ALL who seek skill in arms, to do so in a respectful and optimistic manner but never fail to speak the ‘hard truth’ where/when it is needed.
- To be honorable in every fight, to never ‘loose it’, to keen honor stainless even at the cost of losing a battle to an ‘overly armored’ opponent.
- To always strive to the next level in martial prowess, especially with the knowledge that the will always be a higher level to obtain.
In Court:
- To be a steadfast supporter of the Kingdom, Crown, and it’s People. One must not always like the person who wears the Crown but one must always respect the Position the Crown represents… and always do Honor to the Kingdom, it’s People and it’s Land.
- To strive in areas other than the singularly martial, to excel in all endeavors before the People and The Crown to bring Honor through actions to the Kingdom.
- To Serve
In Camp:
- To strive to a better representation of Persona, through research, application and action.
- To inspire by example, to create for others an goal in which to reach for, and to assist others in achieving that goal.
Tags: honor, knightly, SCA, virtue, warrior
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September 1st, 2009 by Jason Lewis
So I have always had one. I kept myself from trying a good many things in my life due to an insane fear of failure. I could sit here and blame my bastard of a stepfather who beat it into my head that I was not good enough, not smart enough, not attractive enough, but that would just be a cop out. See, I am a believer that you have the choice to change that view, sometimes we don’t do it out of fear of the unknown or the fear of change, but the choice to change it is always there.
I am supposed to Herald this weekend, I will be doing a Knighting and 11 awards. Raven told me last night that everything is written down and God bless her, she gave me an out, a way to punk out and no do court if I so choose to do it. I cannot with good conscience do that. I would feel terrible and I think it would actually end up making me feel worse then I do now.
I do think I will step down as Caltrop. I thought I could do the job, I thought I could do the job well, but I truly believe their Excellencies would be better served by someone else. I was not as emotionally and mentally prepared for this as I thought I was and I need to just enjoy being in the SCA again, as a good, learning a nifty skill and showing up to fight a bit. Things like cleanup and setup/teardown are more my forte. Making things for the Barony is probably more where my strongpoints lie.
After Ren Faire I will be stepping down, I will work to get them a better replacement and then I will just spend some time working on my hobby and playing my game, I hope they understand.
Tags: caltrop, enlightenment, herladry, honor, SCA
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August 26th, 2009 by Jason Lewis
I need to start making some things to sell so that I can support my armour upgrade. I am considering benches and chairs in different woods with the lowest price being in pine and the highest being oak. I can do some pretty spiffy benches with scrollwork using the scrollsaw and give it a bit of character afterward with chisels. I think this might be a neat way to create a savings account to fund an armoury and get started doing some metalworking.
I need to get a higher amperage run out to the garage and I need to start situationg the ceiling so I can hang more lights. I want to eventually get it to a point where I can work out there in the winter time and not be freezing my ass off all the time. I want to slowly start insulating and sealing that bitch up so the wind does not cut right through it. I think I can make do with my current garage for another 5-10 years if I stop the bleeding now so to speak. I can slowly do what needs to be done and replace what needs to be replaced without having to build a brand new garage.
The armoury plans look better and better. I think after Valor and stuff I am going to ask to step down as Caltrop and just concentrate on having fun and working on metalwork and woodworking. I no longer see a need to do this stuff, I can help out without being an officer and I don’t need to be wrapped up in the high school politics anymore. I just want to enjoy myself and learn to fight in period armour that I made.
This whole Ren Faire thing is getting on my damn nerves, I would not have a problem with it if people were not badgering me about shit that has little to no bearing on anything. I finally got fed up last night and told Melisende to send me a list of what she wants done and I would make sure it gets done.
Anyway, got a lot of plans for the next few years and I want to seperate more from the Barony and just do what I enjoy doing. I don’t have to be in the spotlight to have a good time.
Tags: armoury, garage, renfaire, SCA, Woodworking
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August 20th, 2009 by Jason Lewis
I have been reading this book, Living the Martial Way, good read so far. I am currently on the chapter on Honor and was shocked to read the honor consists of three principles, Obligation, Justice, and Courage. While reading on these things, the author speaks about the three levels of what I call honor enlightenment. He uses the story that a man is killed after leaving a large sum of money with a friend for safe keeping. The friend knows no one but he and his dead friend knew of the arrangement. His honor comes down to three choices in decending order of enlightenment.
- He can return the money to the man’s family without ever thinking of keeping it himself as this is the right and just thing to do.
- He can think about keeping the money, but return it after shame and guilt set in.
- He can keep the money and never tell anyone what happened.
The most honorable of men would choose the first because it is his Obligation to do so and his Giri is fulfilled to his friend. He would never consider keeping someone elses money for his own selfish game because that in turn hurts the man’s family and causes injustice. It takes courage to do these things and thus his honor is intact because he has fulfilled the three tenants of Honor.
There are men, I have known many in my time, who are unscrupulous and look for oppurtunities like this to profit off of the misery of others. I do not feel I have ever, nor will I ever be that man. Now, that being said, I am neither saint nor demon, I am a middle of the road man who would think out both sides of the coin before returning the money, does this make me dishonorable or less then honorable to the other man? I don’t think so, I think it makes me unenlightened and enlightenment is something to work toward until the end of your days.
Tags: enlightenment, honor, warrior
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