Midrealm bruhaha and a simple solution

If you haven't heard about what happened with the Midrealm Crown over the weekend, I'm sure you can find information about it out there. I'd like to say go to www.midreal.org, but I cannot reach it at this point. I think the Midrealmers may have melted their servers.

The short version is that TRM Lutr and Tessa were stripped of their Crowns due to failure to maintain membership. The details go deeper, but that and the BoD's request for suggestions on how to keep this from happening again are the gist of the impetus for this post.

I believe the simplest and most straight forward solution to avoid issues like this in the future would be to have the BoD require that any participant in a Crown Tourney to show proof, before taking the field, that their membership will be in good standing throughout the period of the reign. As one can renew at any time for a period of up to three years, IIRC, I cannot see where this would be an issue. I've also heard from others that in other kingdoms this is already a requirement. It preempts any need for the BoD to get involved at any level other than possible record keeping(though the onus for that could easily be shifted to the Kingdom Seneschal - who, IMO, should bear it anyways). I am sure everyone, including the BoD, would agree that the less the BoD has to be involved, the better.

The only drawback will be that for the first year this is in effect, it will require people fighting in more than one Crown tourney of that year to renew twice. Given the long term stability this rule will create, though, I think this short term inconvenience is worth it.

Better than no news

My supervisor emailed me and told me we'd revisit the idea of me changing my shift from weekends to weekdays when one of the other guys on my shift is cross trained(he starts next week).

To me, this sounds promising. I'd still be working nights, but I can handle that.

Horatius (partial quote)

XXVII.

Then out spoke brave Horatius, the Captain of the Gate:
"To every man upon this earth, death cometh soon or late;
And how can man die better than facing fearful odds,
For the ashes of his fathers, and the temples of his Gods,

XXVIII.

And for the tender mother who dandled him to rest,
And for the wife who nurses his baby at her breast,
And for the holy maidens who feed the eternal flame,
To save them from false Sextus, that wrought the deed of shame?

XXIX.

Hew down the bridge, Sir Consul, with all the speed ye may!
I, with two more to help me, will hold the foe in play.
In yon strait path, a thousand may well be stopped by three:
Now, who will stand on either hand and keep the bridge with me?'

-Thomas Babington Macaulay

(I guess I'm feeling extra poetic today)

"Fuzzy-Wuzzy" (Sudan Expeditionary Force)

So 'ere's to you, Fuzzy-Wuzzy, at your 'ome in the Soudan;
You're a pore benighted 'eathen but a first-class fightin' man;
We gives you your certificate, an' if you want it signed
We'll come an' 'ave a romp with you whenever you're inclined.

-Rudyard Kipling

Promising!

So I spoke to my supervisor about staying on third shift but switching over to a weekday schedule as opposed to a weekend schedule. At this point he can't give me an answer about moving over, but his response made me much more hopeful. As he just got back from vacation, he wants to get his feet back under him and also needs to see where the crosstraining of some other agents is. So he said it would be a few weeks before he could tell me anything.

I'm crossing my fingers.

Events?

Given that I can only take time off to make one, maybe two events at this time, what event would you say I shouldn't miss? I'm looking for events that I can't day trip to from San Marcos. I'd also like to keep them within Ansteorra.

I'm not dead yet!

Just a quick post...

Well, I'm finally getting settled into a better schedule between work and the rest of my life. I'm not so hot on working third shift and even less on working weekends. It makes doing weekend events a real pain since I wind up having to take four days off for weekend events and on top of it my schedule is so completely mucked up. I've also been staying up late to spend time with the youngest kid, so that's putting me getting up at 8 pm usually. I then have an hour and a half to eat "breakfast"(dinner for the rest of the family), get ready, and drive up to work.

I may be able to change over to the weekday only shift now(two of the three guys on it have quit). That alone would help immensely.

I also suppose I could day trip to some events. In that case I'd only need Friday and Saturday off. Still, I only have 15 paid days off.

Yay! Boo!

Yay! - I got a job at Unisys doing tech support.

Boo! - My schedule is Friday through Tuesday, 10:30 PM to 7 AM.

According to what my manager told me during the interview, I won't start that for about five weeks(training will be during the day since the call volume is higher), so I can make things like Coronation and Round Table, maybe Candlemas. Beyond that, I just don't know. I will have to wait and see if I can make Gulf Wars.

Important Life Lesson

If you've been working off one of those collapsible camp tables for the last week and never once in that time have you bumped it, the first time you get up after setting a 18 oz cup of hot, sugary coffee on it, you will bump it enough to spill the hot and sticky stuff all over your tools and leather.

Fortunately, it mainly got all over scrap leather I was going to use for strapping, but I still had to wash my mat and tools. It was also fortunate I had the mat on the table, otherwise I'd've had coffee all over the floor. It also managed to miss most of a pattern I had sitting on the table.

The short answer on the health issues

Well, providing I don't have another flare up of severe pain I should be okay after I complete two weeks of major antibiotics. Then four weeks later I have to get a colonoscopy to check for polyps and also see if everything is healed up in my colon. I'm also stuck on a "low residue" diet. It is the exact opposite of a high fiber diet. No fresh veggies or fruit. Basically think of the Adkin's diet and that's pretty close to what I'm on.