I Ain'tn't Dead
Nov. 10th, 2013 10:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gwydionI am home and safe.
It was quite the trek, but worth it, I think.
Thursday: Cathy and Jeff who are friends from my second college took me to the Chinese Gardens and to see the Samurai Exhibit. The Samurai Exhibit was impressive. It was nearly all out of my period, being mostly early modern rather than Kamakura and earlier, but it was amazing. They had horse equipage, heirloom fabrics, several full sets of armor including the shoes, lots of partial armor, an impressive array of helmets, and some other sundries. As they were from a private collection rather than another museum, the cards were of varying degrees of informative. Between my knowledge of Western armour and the bits and pieces of things I've picked up over the years about mostly earlier periods of Japanese history, I had an entertaining time guessing things about designs. (Ex: Was this leg and thigh cavalry type armour that shape to accommodate padding and/or soft armour? Is this piece ceremonial rather than practical, because it sure looked like it, whereas this piece looks practical because the goo gaws are removable and it's a sensible shape with sturdy construction). We saw nipples with attached rings on the armor early in the exhibit. My guess was they were for decoration. Cathy's guess is was like the rings on the back armour to secure things. We were both right as the nipple rings were for hanging tassels from the external pasties! They had a glitter saddle and matching stirrups! This is something I'd never heard of. They did it by embedding tiny abalone shell bits in lacquer. The result was startling as accents on someone's armor, but surreal in bulk on the equipage. The effect was something I wouldn't have imagined and well worth the pain involved in all that gimping about. The workmanship in the pieces was stunning and you could really examine the detail and the way things worked together. Nearly everything was of a beauty of design that took my breath away at times. Some of the helmets remind me of the sort of modern art sculptures I liked. The opportunity to see this was an unexpected gift. We had a nice dinner at a Lebanese place and Jeff escorted me back to the hotel, where March and new friend Cat were already ensconced. After meds, things were better physically, although as it turned out, I did not pack nearly enough rescue narcotics for the amount of walking required for the length of the Con (I grabbed the wrong bottle, so only had two, but needed four). New friend Cat, was delightful, BTW. I had mostly gotten things sorted out and was starting to worry about Greenwick when he turned up.
Fri: We got up bright and early, picked up our badges, had breakfast and split up. I did a bunch of panels, during which various paths crossed. A bunch of new people were meant to turn up to the Meet 'n Sniff, but it turned out to be me, the nice couple I play with every year, their surprisingly grown up daughter teenaged daughter who was just getting into the hobby, and Greenwick. The Daughter and Greenwick took notes on things they liked, to be correlated later. I was paneled out, so the rest of the evening was social.
Sat: More panels. I got to touch bases with a friend I've mostly lost touch with, but whom I run into about town now and then. He has a lovely wife, new baby, and a carreer going well, which makes me happy. (Those of you who used to cram hotel rooms with me at Orycon shortly after I moved North might remember him. He was the blond technical writer whose then girlfriend slept on the dresser that time). I got a good line on a vest in my size and colors, but flaked going back before leaving Sunday. I have an email address, so fingers crossed. I failed to score a replacement for my shadow Beast CD which is scratched, alas. I exposed poor Greenwick to the Orycon version of Who's Line, which was a little slow starting, but quite good. My right leg waited until I was in my room before freezing up. They were kind enough to wheel over the office chair, help me into it, and get me meds and stuff. Yay, friends! I was functional after things settled in, but my legs are still dicey.
Sun: We had a half hour adventure trying to make it downstairs, complete with a guy nearly breaking the elevator we were actually in by insisting on cramming in and overloading the weight capacity. This meant Greenwick and I missed 15 minutes of the Alexander Adams concert, but we got most of the second version of the fairy queen song with the glorious fiddle work, "Ichabod Crane," two new songs, several other of these songs I'm fond of, and whole bunch of story telling. Alas no "Creature of the Woods" or "March of Cambreath," but he was in good musical form and I swear he gets handsomer every year. I am going to subject greenwick to more of his music on his future visits here, since I have most of his catalog here at the cat asylum. We prereged, ate as a group and said our good byes. People were really helpful and kind to me on the way back that made things way less unpleasant physically than they might otherwise have been. I even met a delightful blind gentleman who got on at Seattle. We chatted at the stops, but read during the actual traveling. (He's straight, so it wasn't flirting. He does adaptive technology consulting for BSD, so we've worked in a lot of the same places and the conversation was amusing and in exactly the quantity I can handle from strangers while traveling.
The cats and Squirrel were happy to see me. I am fed and medicated. Soon there will be neccessary takes before bed, but I was very closing to seizing up again when I first got home, so I'm taking it slow to avoid getting stranded without a person to push a chair under me, Squirrel having work tonight.
It was quite the trek, but worth it, I think.
Thursday: Cathy and Jeff who are friends from my second college took me to the Chinese Gardens and to see the Samurai Exhibit. The Samurai Exhibit was impressive. It was nearly all out of my period, being mostly early modern rather than Kamakura and earlier, but it was amazing. They had horse equipage, heirloom fabrics, several full sets of armor including the shoes, lots of partial armor, an impressive array of helmets, and some other sundries. As they were from a private collection rather than another museum, the cards were of varying degrees of informative. Between my knowledge of Western armour and the bits and pieces of things I've picked up over the years about mostly earlier periods of Japanese history, I had an entertaining time guessing things about designs. (Ex: Was this leg and thigh cavalry type armour that shape to accommodate padding and/or soft armour? Is this piece ceremonial rather than practical, because it sure looked like it, whereas this piece looks practical because the goo gaws are removable and it's a sensible shape with sturdy construction). We saw nipples with attached rings on the armor early in the exhibit. My guess was they were for decoration. Cathy's guess is was like the rings on the back armour to secure things. We were both right as the nipple rings were for hanging tassels from the external pasties! They had a glitter saddle and matching stirrups! This is something I'd never heard of. They did it by embedding tiny abalone shell bits in lacquer. The result was startling as accents on someone's armor, but surreal in bulk on the equipage. The effect was something I wouldn't have imagined and well worth the pain involved in all that gimping about. The workmanship in the pieces was stunning and you could really examine the detail and the way things worked together. Nearly everything was of a beauty of design that took my breath away at times. Some of the helmets remind me of the sort of modern art sculptures I liked. The opportunity to see this was an unexpected gift. We had a nice dinner at a Lebanese place and Jeff escorted me back to the hotel, where March and new friend Cat were already ensconced. After meds, things were better physically, although as it turned out, I did not pack nearly enough rescue narcotics for the amount of walking required for the length of the Con (I grabbed the wrong bottle, so only had two, but needed four). New friend Cat, was delightful, BTW. I had mostly gotten things sorted out and was starting to worry about Greenwick when he turned up.
Fri: We got up bright and early, picked up our badges, had breakfast and split up. I did a bunch of panels, during which various paths crossed. A bunch of new people were meant to turn up to the Meet 'n Sniff, but it turned out to be me, the nice couple I play with every year, their surprisingly grown up daughter teenaged daughter who was just getting into the hobby, and Greenwick. The Daughter and Greenwick took notes on things they liked, to be correlated later. I was paneled out, so the rest of the evening was social.
Sat: More panels. I got to touch bases with a friend I've mostly lost touch with, but whom I run into about town now and then. He has a lovely wife, new baby, and a carreer going well, which makes me happy. (Those of you who used to cram hotel rooms with me at Orycon shortly after I moved North might remember him. He was the blond technical writer whose then girlfriend slept on the dresser that time). I got a good line on a vest in my size and colors, but flaked going back before leaving Sunday. I have an email address, so fingers crossed. I failed to score a replacement for my shadow Beast CD which is scratched, alas. I exposed poor Greenwick to the Orycon version of Who's Line, which was a little slow starting, but quite good. My right leg waited until I was in my room before freezing up. They were kind enough to wheel over the office chair, help me into it, and get me meds and stuff. Yay, friends! I was functional after things settled in, but my legs are still dicey.
Sun: We had a half hour adventure trying to make it downstairs, complete with a guy nearly breaking the elevator we were actually in by insisting on cramming in and overloading the weight capacity. This meant Greenwick and I missed 15 minutes of the Alexander Adams concert, but we got most of the second version of the fairy queen song with the glorious fiddle work, "Ichabod Crane," two new songs, several other of these songs I'm fond of, and whole bunch of story telling. Alas no "Creature of the Woods" or "March of Cambreath," but he was in good musical form and I swear he gets handsomer every year. I am going to subject greenwick to more of his music on his future visits here, since I have most of his catalog here at the cat asylum. We prereged, ate as a group and said our good byes. People were really helpful and kind to me on the way back that made things way less unpleasant physically than they might otherwise have been. I even met a delightful blind gentleman who got on at Seattle. We chatted at the stops, but read during the actual traveling. (He's straight, so it wasn't flirting. He does adaptive technology consulting for BSD, so we've worked in a lot of the same places and the conversation was amusing and in exactly the quantity I can handle from strangers while traveling.
The cats and Squirrel were happy to see me. I am fed and medicated. Soon there will be neccessary takes before bed, but I was very closing to seizing up again when I first got home, so I'm taking it slow to avoid getting stranded without a person to push a chair under me, Squirrel having work tonight.