Now that was just grand old fun!

Every conference should have a session on medieval and Renaissance dance. There's nothing quite like getting to know your fellow participants than suddenly finding yourself hopping sideways bumping into them pretending that you're a pea, or doing one of the "follow the leader" line dances and getting underneath an arch and suddenly finding two men you previously haven't met have their arms wrapped around you.

I was surprised at how many of the dances I didn't know -- I didn't know a single one of the Italian dances they did, I only knew the bransle. I'm terribly bad at remembering the names of dances that I've done, but one that they taught us, which resulting in complete chaos, was called "Annulo". I'd like to try that one again.

The rest of the day was also lots of fun; after I finished getting the English translation made of my handout, I went to a session on farting and excrement in medieval literature. It's really fascinating how these topics can be handled in a perfectly academic fashion as if they were any other topic, and yet you'll get ripples of nervous laughter throughout the audience whenever a dirty word is said. Following that, I came back to my room and did a dry run-through of my talk, and I was pleasantly surprised to see that I've easily got 20-25 min. worth of things to say. And it went quickly enough that I ended up with time to catch the shuttle to the other conference site for the keynote talk on "Language and Power in the 11th C", which discussed different approaches and arguments pro and con for vernacular liturgies in the 8th-12th C. There was a reception afterwards where I talked with the guy that I'd met at breakfast this morning, a 1st year Ph.D. student who is working on the cult of Saint Chad. Suddenly, what I do doesn't seem nearly so esoteric any more. Not amongst these people!

Got another full day tomorrow, the first session I want to go to is at 9am like today's, and my talk is the last one of the pre-supper sessions, after which I'm going to the medieval food workshop and then meeting up with jpgsawyer for what will by that time I'm sure be a much desired drink. Long day! But it should also be good.

nabbed from various

I substituted "travel" for "drive" as I haven't driven to an event in quite some time, but I have taken the train or flown to events. Also, when it comes to "big jobs for the SCA", I decided that "Pelican Queen of Arms" counted as 2. :) I like how "library fines" count as "money spent on the SCA". They missed an answer for one of the questions. The highest I could go is "I spend hours each month", whereas if the option "I spend hours each day" was available I could've clicked that. However, given that I haven't been to a local meeting in two years and that I attend 2 events a year on a good year, I think this is pretty accurate:

Your result for The hardcore SCA Test...

The Lord or Lady

You really enjoy the SCA and like to go to events when you can. However it doesn't take over you life or anything. You've probably got an AOA or will have one soon. Sometimes folks wonder where you've been when you make it back to a meeting or event.

Take The hardcore SCA Test at HelloQuizzy

Leeds, Day 3

You never really relax at a conference until after you've given your paper, so I'm happy to say that I am now fully relaxed (or at least I will be after the medieval food workshop and that beer that jgpsawyer promised me. I think my talk went well; as I expected there were no experts in the field (I'm not even sure if there was more than 2-3 people who'd ever heard of obligationes before), but I got some questions which I was able to answer to my satisfaction, which, along with taking the correct amount of time to present, is one of my two requirements for a successful paper presentation.

Today I've gone to talks on monsters and gender in Viking literature (including a talk on Grettir the Vampire Slayer), courtesy and chivalry in the 12th century, learning before the universities, and my session, on disputations. The conference has now been going on long enough that by the time I reach the fourth session of the day, I have to struggle to remember what was the topic of the first session I attended! I've gotten quite a bit done on my sleeve embroidery, and I'm pleased to see that the entire effect so far doesn't seem nearly as wretched in construction and composition as each individual stitch does. I find it somewhat strange (a) I'm the only one I've seen doing handwork during the talks and (b) I've been doing this continuously since the second session on Monday and only one person has asked me about it so far. Strange.