Monthly Archive for April, 2009

GA Ren Faire Vol 1

Published on April 28, 2009 at 11:20. Tags: , , , , , .

I am calling this Vol 1, as I will be returning to GARF for the closing weekend, and that will help differentiate pictures and posts etc.

We got down to Atlanta around 11:45 pm EST, and pretty much just went to sleep knowing that we would be getting up early to head to the faire. We got off to a later start then we had originally planned, and got to the faire around 10:45. It was about 11:15 by the time we were ready and purchased our tickets. My first stop was going to be the kilt booth that I had gone to last year and was pondering ever since. I really wanted a wool great kilt for quite some time, and had set back some money for it over the year, and they had one that I liked. At first I was torn between two different patterns, the night watch, and the black stuart. The thing that made up my mind was when Charlie, the kilt salesman, said that the night watch was very popular. I don’t want the same kilt as everyone else, so I went with the black stuart. Here is a look at the pattern.

I also ended up getting the Son of Sandlar boots that I had looked at last year, and they are great. The one other thing that I got to go along with my kilt is a grey fox head sporran. It was meant to be a pouch, but last night I took some extra leather I had, and made the sporran belt which makes it sit at the correct position.

Ivan was able to get his new Robin Hood boots, and Starfire sword, and Summer got a full length leather thing. We don’t know what the actual name for a piece like this would be, but it is a cross between an apron, a duster, and a tunic. Needless to say, it is awesome.

Here are a couple of pictures. The rest can be seen here.

Current Mood: (accomplished) accomplished

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Return of the Ren Faire season

Published on April 22, 2009 at 13:33. Tags: , , , , , , , .

This Saturday it is time once again to get back into the ren faire spirit. I am heading down to Atlanta on Friday evening, accompanied by Ivan and Summer, and will be attending the Georgia Renaissance Festival or GARF for short on both Saturday and part of Sunday. I am still torn as to whether or not I am going to go in costume, or just be comfy and take pictures. I don’t really care to carry my camera with me if I am in costume, so it is still up in the air as to what to do. The plan is to return for the final weekend of GARF as well, so I will probably do that one is a costume of some sort.

The other big thing that I get to do this weekend is to see my new nephew Andrew for the first time. I am very excited about this, as I need to establish my status as the cool uncle. I know that Joshua is happy to have a little brother, so that should be a cool experience. I definitely plan to get some good pictures of the nephews to give to my parents and my sister.

I had a blast when I went to GA for the faire last year. It is a different environment than the TN Renaissance faire in that GA has each vendor in their own freestanding buildings, something TN can’t do due to stupid zoning restrictions etc. GA was a much better faire for vendors, but the entertainment value of TN trumps GA in my opinion many times over. TN faire starts of in a week, and I plan to go at least one day each weekend if not both. With the new house, I am MUCH closer to the faire site, and I can always take the bike up there and get front row parking in the motorcycle lots if I don’t feel like getting there at opening gate for a good parking spot.

I love just wandering around at the faire. I have it down to a science where I can do a whole day for about 10 bucks total if I try, and that is being there from 9:30 until pub sing at the end of the day. There are very few things that you can spend 10 bucks on for a full day of entertainment. I don’t include entry into this figure, as I but a season pass. As long as I go 5 times total, that makes the pass worth it.

If you are going to be at GARF or are going to TN, let me know when you will be there so I can be sure to keep an eye out for you.

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Afterthoughts of the move

Published on April 20, 2009 at 07:45. Tags: , , , .

Aside from my recent move, I had been in the same residence for 8 years. In that time, I accumulated quite a few things, as well as took up some hobbies that require a large storage area for each of the necessary items that pertain to them. I also learned that I had so much junk that could have been thrown away quite some time ago, that I finally ditched, and I know that there are other things that will meet this fate as well, once I get done going through boxes and deciding if this is something that I really need to keep.

Right now, my garage is baring the brunt of the move. I used it as a staging ground in order to clean off dust/dog hair from stuff before taking it inside to find a new home. The process is slow, mainly due to the fact that by the time I get home in the evening, I just want to get some dinner, watch a little TV, and then sleep. I am trying to make a big dent in getting things settled this week, as I will be out of town next weekend, and won’t be able to do any of it then. I need to get all of this taken care of, so that I will have room for my next line of expenses of a lawnmower, and weedeater, as the grass has started to turn from brown to green, and my lawncare saga will need to begin soon.

Current Mood: (lazy) lazy

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I Saw the Signs

Published on April 16, 2009 at 14:50. Tags: , , , , , , .

As I said in my last post, I did decide to venture out to the tax day tea party in Franklin yesterday evening. I got there right as it was getting started, and had a bit of trouble finding somewhere to park, which for an event like this, is a good problem to have. The square in Franklin has a traffic roundabout, which I was surprised to see what open. Franklin closes down the square every other week for something it seems. The nice thing about the roundabout being open was the fact that people were able to honk in support of the gathering as they drove by.

The event had some local radio personalities, as well as the organizer of the event that had been in downtown Nashville earlier in the day and special guest Representative Marsha Blackburn. They tied in gathering food for a local shelter, something that I will venture to say is rare at most protests. The estimates that I am hearing for Franklin are easily over 2000 in attendance. I have seen some estimates of higher numbers, but I figure 2000 is a good median number to go with. The attendees ranged from children in strollers, to entire families, including the family dog.

The PA was at max volume, but unfortunately that was not loud enough for most of the crowd to be able to hear the speakers, but that did not deter people from clapping and showing their support as they waved their signs. Everyone was peaceful, and folks even stayed at the end to be sure that there was not trash left where the gathering had taken place.

Earlier I was reading Jessica’s post about all of these hate signs that were supposedly at all of these rallies. I took about 90 pictures, and I saw some signs that expressed anger at the way things have been done, but no signs calling Obama Hitler or anything of that ilk. Most of the signs were creative, yet to the point. Here are a couple of samples of the signs I saw.

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The rest of the pictures can be seen via the galleries link on the left.

So what’s next? The vibe I got when speaking to some of the people in the crowd is that this is just the beginning of people getting involved. The website www.teapartynation.com seems like it is going to be the local resource for getting people involved. This is specific to the state of TN, and I encourage people to go and sign up. From what I have seen online today, it looks like July 4th will be the next gathering against overzealous spending and a government that cares about itself, and not about the people it should be representing.

Current Mood: (hopeful) hopeful

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A spot of tea seems to be in order

Published on April 14, 2009 at 10:00. Tags: , , , , , , .

I have decided that I am going to participate in the nationwide tea party movement tomorrow by attending the one that is in Franklin, TN at 6:00 pm. I don’t think that I am going to make a sign or anything like that, but I do plan on having the camera in tow to try and get some pictures of the event.

For those not familiar, here is a little background on the tea party events that have been going on around the country from the website www.taxdayteaparty.com

Tax Day Tea Party

The Tax Day Tea Party is a national collaborative grassroots effort organized by Smart Girl Politics, Top Conservatives on Twitter, the DontGo Movement and many other online groups/coalitions.

The Tea Party protests, in their current form, began in early 2009 when Rick Santelli, the On Air Editor for CNBC, set out on a rant to expose the bankrupt liberal agenda of the White House Administration and Congress. Specifically, the flawed “Stimulus Bill” and pork filled budget.

During Rick’s rant (see video below), he called for a “Chicago tea Party” where advocates of the free-market system could join in a protest against out of control government spending.

A few days later, grassroots activists and average Joe Americans began organizing what would soon become the Nationwide Chicago Tea Party effort.

On February 27th, an estimated 30,000 Americans took to the street in 40+ cities across the country in the first nationwide “Tea Party” protest.

Organizers of the February 27th events pledged to continue on with an even bigger and better protest to follow the first. With April 15th being “Tax Day”, it was decided to schedule the second round of Tea Party protests to ride alongside the tax deadline.

And with that, the “Tax Day Tea Party”, the second round of the Nationwide Tea Party protests, moved into reality.

I agree that it is ridiculous that in our country today, the responsible people are the ones who are screwed at every turn. There are so many people asking for handouts, and the bill for these handouts falls to responsible tax paying Americans. Many people feel entitled to free money and help, and for what? Have they worked in order to deserve these things? I know that anyone can fall on hard times, but that is when you tighten the belt and work your ass off to get back into the black. You don’t sit around and hope for someone to come and give you a unicorn and a rainbow. My dad is an offshore engineer. When the oil market took a dump in the 80s, times were rough. He worked the night shift at the corner gas station in addition to his regular job in order to keep the family afloat.

As long as you are breathing, there is a way to make things work. It might suck for a while, and you might have to sell your nice car and tv. You might need to go from filet mignon, to beefaroni, and caviar to carryout. Your standard of living will change, but that should be motivation to work harder and vow to return to the higher standard once you can afford it.

Hopefully these tea parties will be a wake up call that honest hard working people are sick of carrying the slack for others. If nothing else, it is a good springboard for getting people ready for the 2010 elections, when it will be time to start regaining some lost ground in Congress.

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