SCA Meme

While work is still slow from the break and I have time…

The now infamous SCA meme brought to you by and sponsored by … oh wait, this is not a made for TV movie so dont look for the product placements…

1. What is your SCA name? (You don’t have to write the full name, just your first name if you want.) Nikulai Ivanovich – no relation. (If you dont get that, go directly to Amazon and click order now – or click here to listen to a sample.)

2. What is your home kingdom? – Atlantia

3. Have you ever lived in another kingdom? If so, where? – Yes and no. Since joinging the SCA, no. Before joining, I grew up in the East kingdom.

4. Do you remember your first SCA event? When/what was it? – The last Jeunglerie at Camp Kanata. I had broken up with my ex and was on auto-pilot. suggested I go with Gryphon the Black (nee Pog) to an SCA event. Sveva made me some garb – well she started out teaching me to sew and then I cut my hand open (unrealted to the sewing) and she graciously finished it up for me. I had a great time at the event and everyone was friendly and made me feel welcome and for the first time in months I was back to being me. Thats why I say I never jouined the SCA but was adopted by it. I came home from that saying ‘that was fun – I want to run one’ and a year later to the day I autocratted my first event – Cossacks, Mongols, and Huns, Oh My! Guess my path was set from the first.

5. Do you have any awards? (You don’t have to list them if you don’t want) - Yup – see the OP for them.

6. Do you list them after your name in communications like e-mail? – The sig file on my SCA email account (yes, I am a typical geek and have around a dozen different email accounts not including aliases etc.) does show my Peerage but I dont list any of the others.

7. Do you have a device? – Bad humor aside, yes. You can see it in my user icon or on the OP. I also have a badge but do not have a rendering of it yet.

8. Do you use it? On what? – Its my icon here, and I have an awesome banner that made for me for my elevation.

9. Are you on all the kingdom/society lists available to you, or do you avoid them? – Oh hell no. I am on a few and Ive been on even more but I get more email then I crae to read these days as it is so I am trimming down what I get when and where I can.

10. Do you keep your Pennsic/Estrella/Gulf Wars/etc. site tokens? – Yes – and the kewl tokens from other events. I have a nice felted pouch that Lady Mor made for me and I keep them in there. Some day I will do something with them all. Probably something not period just to make the laurels twitch. Guess if I am kidding.

11. Do you keep the favours you’ve been given by royalty/friends/SOs, etc.? Do You wear them all? – I wear the favor Adam Lukas gave me, and the House Flaming Bolt favor as well. I really dont have any others. I do have one of Niobe’s bells and wore that throught her & Stephan’s reign. I expect some day I will get an R from Ragnaar and will wear that with prode.

12. Do you call your friends by their SCA names even when you’re not at an event? – I seem to flip back and forth… depends on how I know the person – i.e. is it just through the SCA or not – and there are those who have interchangeable names (Calli, Nia, etc.)

13. Do you go out to dinner in garb after an event? – I try not to – I feel uncomfortable when I have to leave site in garb – even at Pennsic. And sometimes its nice to put on the mundanes. Actually, the biggest thing to me after leaving an event is washing my hands. I always feel dirty until I have done that.

14. Do you have all kinds of garb, or do you generally stick to one period? – I have generic tunics & pants mostly – some nice cotes also, A few Russian tunics as well – really need more Russian stuff.

15. How many interests do you have within the SCA? What’s your favourite? – Let me be blunt and say what most wont – my favorite interest is the social factor. Plain and simple. Everything else is really secondary to me. Next is autocratting although that is less a driving force for me now – not sure if its that I have attained my goal with it or that my organizational skills are now being used at work and so it seems less like fun and more like work these days. Actually, it seems depressingly like a project at work these days – may even try a gant chart with the next one I do just to see… After that is brewing – which I am really lazy at and so I will never be a real high quality brewer. But, folks seem to like my beer so I will keep making it.

16. Do you have an SCA-oriented web site (to show off projects, keep dress diaries, etc.)? – I have a web site (www.atlow.org) and it has some SCA stuff on it – nothing major though. I suppose I could do alot more with it. Oh yeah, I did start an Autocrat Wiki some time ago – need to get it to a more publishable state and then publicize it. I am hopeful it will take off and become a really good resource.

17. Do you maintain a hairstyle that is more period style than modern? How about any other part of your appearance? – Is receding hairline period? If so, then yes. Mine is probably kept shorter then in period, and Russian men probably wore full beards for the insulation… but its one aspect of the many I know little about. Someday….

18. Do you tell “No $###, there I was” stories? (Admit it.) Do any of them involve well-known SCA people? – Have I mentioned that I was (Nia’s) protege? Do I need to say more on this?

19. Authenticity is Fun. Yes or no? Why? – Yes and no… I think there is a certain aspect of authenticity that is fun and others that to me personally take it too far. I think this is a personal question really – and its one of those my rights end where the next person’s start type things. Everyone should be as authentic as they are comfiortable with (within reason – no t-shirts, jeans, boom bioxes, etc.) and not criticize others for their level of authenticity. For example, Eldred was explaining to Lukas & I that there is no evidence of men wearing two garters in period, and thats kewl to know. But, if I am more comfortable wearing garters becuase I am concerned about my leggings falling down, then that is my decission. As long as they are not florescent green or some such.

20. Is there one modern thing at events that really bugs you? – None that push my buttons really. I know people hate the radios, but for large events they are truly necessary – would have made Crusades this year so much easier to run if I could have found all of mine instead of only having two. I guess my big issue is not modern things but mopdern behavior – like parking blocking the road and ‘do you know who I am’ types – yes, I know who you are and you should be setting the example not trying to get away with things. If the rule is we cannot park by the cabins, just because you are the Grand Earl Poobah of Whatdafuk does not mean you get to ignore the rules – in fact you should be the first one moving your car. That was not aimed at anyone or any incident in particular – just a general behavior I have seen over the past 10+ years. And, in fact, it has gotten better in recent years.

Bonus Question! 21. Everyone has a shameful garb/accessory mistake hidden somewhere in their past. What’s yours? (We’re all friends here, we promise not to laugh. Much.) – I guess that I am fortunate in that from my first event I had people looking out for me garb and other wise. There was the incident with Master Mordok at Gulf Warts – I thought I was wearing a perfectly reasonable Russian peasant tunic and Mordok said “why dont you wear Russian garb?” – Ive since learned what I thought was reasonable was actually fiction. C’est la vie.