| I post therefore I am (no, really, I do actually still exist) |
[Aug. 6th, 2006|02:11 pm] |
Hmm. What's that, towering ominously at the back of my mind? Oh. A gigantic backlog of bits of life that need swapping out to LJ before memory corruption sets in. Oops, I'd better do something about that. So, in chronological order:
First aid
Last month I had my first outing with my friendly neighbourhood St. John Ambulance unit, at Pop in the Park (on Parker's Piece). I'd been out on duty with Warwick LINKS before, but never yet treated anyone. As promised, that was quickly rectified. Obviously I shan't post details of such things, but I very much got the warm fuzzies about having Been Useful and Put Training Into Practise and all that jazz. I hope to go out on duty with them again some time soon. I'll have to find out more about the upcoming duties…
Maelstrom
If you don't know what this is, see Profound Decisions, but it's essentially a LARP event with less combat and more player-driven plot than most and an online component between events. I went to Foundation as two different people, this being because I was stupid enough to get the first one killed. I was standing at the front of the trading house camp, watching a mob of at least 50 mercenaries walk past. I jokingly said something like "I hope they're not here for us," at which point it became abundantly clear that they were. Strikedown is annoying: had it not been called, I would have been able to flee.
Some time after that, I (a different I) was at a gathering away from the camp, when I saw a funeral procession going past, and then realised it was for my former self, among many others. Walking along at the back of this, being fearful of a repeat performance (albeit of an event my new character hadn't witnessed) and occasionally hearing good things about said former self, was very surreal.
Although the New World has several currencies, it is said that its true currency is days: the days of downtime necessary to learn/teach skills or to craft items. Next event, I expect to build up a waiting list of people for whom to craft armour.
Greece
Since the mid-holiday post, I've returned from San Agostino, though the resort was such that in many ways it feels like I never left England. I was going to at least eat in the town once, on the basis that my sister (currently a sailing/windsurfing instructor there) could find somewhere safe, but someone promptly scheduled a staff trip to see The Da Vinci Code (which I still haven't seen). So if anything was missing from the holiday, besides the obvious lack of contact with people, it was seeing some of Greece. I never have (or if I have, I was too young to remember it now) and I'd like to at some point, partly because I'm by some measure 25% Greek (by my late maternal grandmother). The sailing, though, was brilliant, better than any in this country, and that was why I was there.
In the races, incidentally, I was 5th of 8 in my class (Picos), but I never capsized (due to, for example, seeing four boats in a row do so at the gybe mark and deciding I should tack instead). This characterises my sailing: I err on the side of caution, but I have fun doing so. I don't need to be winning or sailing as quickly and professionally as possible in order to enjoy it, I just go out there and relax.
First day at work
You may remember that I squid back in April about having a job: I started it on Tuesday. This is another thing I can't go into much detail about, but let me just say that geekery for fun and profit, rather than just fun, is a very squeeful thing, just in terms of this now being What I Do, independence, eventual real-world use of my work and things along those lines. I am happy there; I could definitely get used to this.
Goth Eucharist and Calling
Now for my first use of the religion tag. A quick history: as I grew up, in so far as I have (a favourite quote: growing old is inevitable, growing up is your own fault), religion was something that Just Happened first thing in the morning at school (which from age 8 was boarding). There'd be some hymns and a short sermon, and that was all well and good wasn't it now can we go please. It didn't get much thought, nor did it seem to from anyone around me, unsurprisingly. My first actual choice in the matter was to get confirmed.
Since starting at university, though, I've hardly been to church. I'm not entirely sure why, but it has seemed… too formal, distanced, too much like going through the motions. In other words, everything that the Goth Eucharist isn't. I was there on Tuesday, and felt much more at home than I ever have in church. The atmosphere, the small congregation (several of whom I knew) and the music (High Hopes played as I received communion) all made it a completely different experience. It was more involving, more conducive to actually thinking about what was being said, somehow much more meaningful to me. I'll definitely be going again (it's at the same time as first aid meetings when they start again, but it's fortnightly). More thoughts on this at some point, possibly, if I can do so without starting a religious flamewar in comments. For the moment I'll just say that Dogma says a lot of insightful things in-between all the "dick and fart jokes".
Afterwards I went to The Calling (site currently down? :-/) for the second time. At this point I suspect I'm going to have to vehemently deny being a goth, except that I think doing so is traditionally supposed to prove I am one. Once again I saw a lot of familiar faces and had a great evening; given the enormous goth-geek overlap (at least in Cambridge), this is hardly surprising. Whilst a lot of the music isn't anything I'd consider listening to anywhere else, I seem to like different things in the context of dancing (I wouldn't generally listen to ceilidh music either, for similar reasons). There's one DJ whose set has tended on both occasions towards the angrier/bleepier/industrial/less tuneful and was thus not my thing, but the rest of it I thoroughly enjoyed.
Film plottage
I have yet to see PotC2, Over The Hedge, …probably countless others that I've missed such as The Da Vinci Code; I've been way too busy, but am now less so. Does anyone feel like watching something with me somewhere in Cambridge some time in the next week or so? |
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recumbent