Last Minute Preparations

This week is typically the most hectic of the year for me. Pennsic War (the SCA's huge "medieval" camping event) is next week, and GenCon is the week after. These two events have recently been held at about the same time, and every year I experience a strange kind of culture shock going from one to the other. Anyways, if you've sent me an email recently and it doesn't involve something very time-critical, then I probably won't get back to you until after August 17th.

Pennsic War

Pennsic is an odd combination of people, some with strong interests in accurately re-enacting medieval life, and others just there to have a good time. With over 10,000 people attending and camping for one to two weeks, there's all sorts of stuff going on and plenty to hold the interest of just about anyone. I tend to look at it as sort of a modern version of the medieval market fair. I spend my time shopping for things I can't easily get other places (like re-creations of medieval cooking knives and linens), socializing with people that I otherwise talk to only through email, take classes on extremely geeky subjects (e.g. Saints and Relics), and kick back and relax in general.

the sort of thing I like to see at Pennsic
click on the image to see more of the photographer's work

There are aspects of Pennsic that I could do without (there were infestations of elves and goths in past years, but they've pretty much cleared out), but you take the good with the bad and on the whole it's worthwhile.

GenCon

GenCon is a convention devoted to games of all sorts, and has an annual attendance of over 25,000. For the past few years I've been giving seminars there on medieval cooking (to help provide game designers and writers with some background information for their work), and of recent participating in the Writers Symposium track of seminars (a fun and eclectic bunch). I also spend a lot of time working/hanging out with the folks at the Miniature Hobby Events (which is kind of funny since my miniature painting skills are quite bad).

I'm nowhere near ready for either of these, much less both, but time and tide wait for no one. Excuse me while I panic.