The good and the not so good of Cynagua Coronet.

[gurdymonkey]

The good: 
The drive to Woodland was less awful than expected, possibly because a significant percentage of the people who would normally have been heading east to Reno or Tahoe were still trying to find their way out of San Francisco due to the Bay Bridge closure.

The not so good: 
Got over to Mari's vigil lateish so Gwenhwyfaer and I got our names on the visitation list late. This meant doing the polite avoidance dance several times during the wait with someone with whom I get along just peachy with as long as we pretend the other is invisible. There was also a considerable amount of silent teeth gnashing through the bardic. I don't care if I ever raise my voice in front of an audience again, quite honestly, and all it did was irritate the everloving shit out of me just to have to sit through it. I managed to get in on a vastly more entertaining conversation with Ximon and Wilhelm and several other people in which we were asked to pick three historical figures we would like to spend time with. (I envisioned a dinner party with John Adams, Sei Shonagon and Oscar Wilde.)

The good: 
Finally got a few moments to see Mari and congratulate her. She asked all her visitors to hold the chain she was going to receive as we spoke. I told her that what I was about to say had become something of a mantra over the past two years, then glanced upward and said, "As usual, you're missing the good stuff." Gaius would have been terribly pleased to know of her elevation. She and Gemini were among the first people I met when I moved out here, they were the Prince and Princess of Cynagua who presented me with my Rose Leaf and the accolade is well and truly earned.

The not so good: 
At least I got to hear her knighting. I got to watch the bobbing of the backs of several jack-in-the-box photographer heads and stare into the lenses of a battery of cameras on the opposite side of the aisle. (What do you want to bet the vast majority of photos that get posted publicly suck?)

The good :
Several people expressed interest in sampling sake.

The not so good: I had to move the tasting to Gwenhwyfaer's sunshade because she didn't want me to be left alone with Creepy Loser Guy. CLG appears to be harmless and I only ever run into him at events in that part of the kingdom. In the past he has bent my ear about all sorts of grandiose plans he had for building instruments and researching this and that just as soon as he no longer has to live out of his car.  I saw him in the morning, he said he was looking forward to coming by later for the sake tasting. I was sitting up front in the sunshade with G and got up to get a drink when I glanced toward the back of the camp and noticed that CLG had staked out a fairground bench beside my tent. In the middle of the afternoon. He sat there for about a good 40 minutes before he finally gave up. He came by TWICE while we were still all eating dinner and had to be told to come back later.  I grabbed the bottles and cups and set up on a bench by the firepit and served from there, with G and Edward and Johann around me, and a couple of the young people from the autocrat staff. CLG made an idiot of himself by calling it sahkee and acting like he knew more than he did. He finally went away when he realized he'd tasted everything I had. Including the girly sparkling stuff.

The good: Rolf and Aurora (more Gaius friends) are the new Lord and Lady of the Swan.

The good: the food in camp. Saturday breakfast was pancakes with homemade plum sauce and bacon, dinner was chicken and veggies in the dutch oven with rice and Edward's yummy chard soup. Sunday breakfast was dutch oven blueberry muffins, bacon and sausage (and we were nibbling on the leftovers most of the morning). I also bought  two cups of chai from the Page School fundraiser. It was chai from a mix, but it was pretty good and Louise said she'd got it at Smart and Final. I should probably NOT buy a can, it's too tempting.....

The good: none of the trick or treaters fell into our firepit.

The good: Stopped by Gilbert's Pelican party, made some more of the Jinyu go away, met some folks I'd seen around but never traded names with.

The good: I'd been helping Owen put up and take down the front wall of the heraldic consulting pavilion - he needs to be careful of lifting just now. This morning I asked him to take a look at the O&A and see how common fans are as charges and discussed some ideas I had for a possible device with him. I need to double check the online version in case there's anything more recent, but it looks like there was only one device using three fans and I can easily come up with enough points of difference in a three-fan design that it should have a good shot at passing. I now have no excuse not to register my Japanese name.

The good: I spotted a teenager taking cell phone pictures of my tent as I was packing down. I said he should've seen it BEFORE I'd started tearing down, we get talking and he wants to do Japanese. I gave him my card, told him to shoot me an email and remind me who he is and I'd be happy to point him at resources.

The good: Had time after teardown to detour to the Vacaville outlets and pick up a new pair of chinos at the Gap, 60% off. 

Comments

[cryptocosm.livejournal.com]

Owen appreciates the assistance. I will note, though, that for the most comprehensive conflict check manageable, you need not only to look at the on-line O&A (which is only a few months better than the version I had at the event), but also the published LOARs which aren't in the database yet, and the submissions in the OSCAR system which haven't been decided yet but will have priority if they're registered. And you still can't guarantee anything until your own submission is in the pipeline with a priority date on it. (Even then it's a challenge.)

[gurdymonkey.livejournal.com]

I coulda had a V8. I didn't realize *you're* cryptocosm. Doh. Color me clueless with a Crayola marker, please.

I understand I'll be at the back of the line and all that. Jehanne's cranky swan took years to pass, with at least two returns for conflict and at least one loss-of-paperwork at the kingdom level that they would admit to.

It's a place to start.

BTW, I misremembered the monkey kamon I told you about. You can see it here and see why it's probably unblazonable and unrecognizable: http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.otomiya.com%2Fkamon%2F&sl=ja&tl=en&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

[cryptocosm.livejournal.com]

If I wanted it to be obvious who I was, I expect I could have chosen something much more helpful. For that matter, I still could. Instead, I chose and have kept something deliberately obscure. The fact that I haven't been guarding that secret very carefully doesn't change that. If there's any fault here, it's mine.

As for your armory concept, I think there's a good chance that something along the line of what we discussed will sail through without any problem. There's just no way I can be certain anything will pass until I see it published.

Looking at the 'monkey', I could blazon it - something along the lines of "an increscent ensigned of a demi-roundel" might do the job - but only those familiar with the specific Japanese usage would recognize it as simian.

[sengokudaimyo.livejournal.com]

Sigh. Sounds soooooo kewl.



I had a life once.

[mistresshuette.livejournal.com]

I know that things here is Caid may be different, but isn't checking the O&A and the LOARs the Herald job to do? You seem to be doing all his work for him.

Secondly, I am admittedly not the worlds most knowledgeable person about all things Japanese. So how are you supposed to pronounce the word 'sake'? I say "sah'-kay", but then "sah'-key" is a very common Americanism. At least the poor guy had the intelligence to go away when it dawned on him that he was unwelcome. Most CLGs that I know of haven't a clue they are unwelcome, even when you tell them so point blank.

[gurdymonkey.livejournal.com]

Hell, yes, I'm doing their jobs for them. After the incompetence and downright rudeness I experienced at the hands of a kingdom principal herald not to be named during the process of registering my European name and device, I have every right to exercise as much control as I possibly can over the process at my end, to wit, documenting my choices completely and thoroughly, drawing the badge/device clearly and correctly right down to using the preferred color of Crayola felt markers, and being prepared to have one or two "difference" options based on what has been published by the College regarding similar heraldic charges.

It'll be just my luck if cryptocosm tries to draft me as a book herald.

[cryptocosm.livejournal.com]

Try? Draft? Whatever for, when you're already doing the job on your own? (Not all book heralds have any official status, nor do they all work at the consultation table. And you're careful about your research, which puts you well up on some of the people who have represented themselves as book heralds.)

[gurdymonkey.livejournal.com]

Japanese pronunciation is generally fairly simple, and you are pretty close to the money: sa = SAH, ke = KEH, stress on each syllable should be equal.

Vowels: A = Ah, E = Eh, I = EE, O = Oh, U = U, except when it's silent and I'm still learning the rules for that. Dipthongs pretty much work by running those sounds together. Sai = SIGH (sah-ee), for example. Hei = HAY (heh-ee).

[la-peregrina.livejournal.com]

Spanish phonetics are, for all purposes, identical: a = ah, e = eh, i and y = ee, o = oh, u = oo as in "cool". Spanish speakers have to be very careful when picking Japanese names, though, as some names in Japanese are impolite nouns and verbs in Spanish. When my brother lived in the Far East, his co-workers and clients often commented upon how his accent was really quite good (even for a Westerner). Japanese was easy for him to pick up. Mandarin was the challenge he took to with relish, going so far as to take "full immersion" courses while he lived in Beijing.