Things that, surprisingly, annoy me

[liadethornegge]

• Blurry event photos. (Aren't all photos from events good??)
• Glasses and shades.
• Plastic waterbottles.
• Loose hair.
• Coronets worn tilted back like the classic beauty queen look. (OK, maybe not so surprising, but still. When you see a picture with a collection of tin-hats and there's only one who does this? You'd think she could glance around and notice something's wrong.)

---

Lia's Resolutions:

• Do not upload blurry event photos. Ever. Even if that's the only photo of someone in the series. Blurry photos irk me! I want details! I want close-ups! I don't want to end up squinting.
• Yes, I do need glasses to get around, and in person my brain edits them out, but in photos? Oh yeah, they stick out like a sore thumb. Particularily when the rest of the person is so well put together. I try to be well put together clothing wise, clean my act up and put in the bloody contacts at events already! At least on the Saturday.
• Never stray from the bottle bag. It may be only an ugly tube of linen, but at least it's not screaming: CLEAR PLASTIC BOTTLE! LOOK AT ME! I'M MODERN! Better yet, get a nice period pottery jug.
• Put your hair up, braid it, stick a veil on, wrap it in a kerchief. I'm pretty good at this already.
• n/a.

Comments

[melaniesuzanne.livejournal.com]

Re: loose hair

I attended an event a couple of weeks ago and I just didn't have the patience or time to fight with my hair to get it in to C14 braids of the buns of insouciance. I fretted and fretted about my hair being loose and obviously modern until I finally found a square of linen and wrapped my head. Oh, I felt so much better. It amused me that even though nobody else would have said a word to me about my hair, I just couldn't let it hang loose. I couldn't do it.

[liadethornegge.livejournal.com]

We are all on the path to greater accuracy. It gives me a warm fuzzy feeling when I know I've got something /right/.

Of course, I thought I was doing it right to start with and I've since learned so much. But it's a gradual process and we'll constantly learn new things that will make what we knew before seem incredibly wrong and horrible.

You know, just as long as you don't ram it down other's throats or go around trying to find faults with others, I think this is a good thing. Much rather lead by example. (which you do marvellously, by the way)

[folo1.livejournal.com]

When I occassionally hear a Scadian speaking like this, it makes me just want to cry, "You get it!" Because so many just do not. A recent thread on the Midrealm mailing list was from some folk who basically opinerd that nothing mattered at an SCA event except for a chance to get drunk, and they'll do it whether the site is dry or not because that's what they're in the SCA for, and besides nobody cares.



A few months ago, I made the innocuopus (I thought) comment that I thought glasses on Vikings just looked comical. Boy, you'd have thought that I told people that I thought they should take out their kidneys with a razer blade! In the words of a friend, everybody started whining (okay, just three or four voices on a large list, but they were highly vocal). One began to equate my not liking spex on a Viking to be an attack against people with disabilities and no jobs, and he ended with a sanctimonious, "I've never wished anyone ill, but I hope you lose your job, get sick and don't die, because then you might understand!"

So, when I say I love hearing from folk who get it, I'm not exaggerating at all!

[liadethornegge.livejournal.com]

Aah, the great glasses-debacle on Authentic_sca! I didn't even read most of the thread, but I did see the message that degenerated into equating "not liking glasses as a look" to "hating everyone with a disability". Now that was just silly.

I'm fine sharing the society with the party-hounds, just as long as they don't pick on me I won't pick on them. Thankfully I can sleep through most any noise, so late-night partying doesn't even bother me in that respect :)

It is nice to meet others who care about accuracy though, as there is always so much to learn.

[folo1.livejournal.com]

Oh no, not the flap on the authenti-SCA list. This was on tyhe Midrealm list. That on the AS list (feels funny typing that; AS usually means Anglo-Saxon to me...) was amusing, but it never got down to the vitriol and namer-calling that he midrealm did.

Have no problem with partyers (unless they're blowing flaming shots at 2 in the morning next to my tent; try sleeping thru that!); I'm more referring to those who will break the rules, endanger our ability to get sites and say that the ability to drink is the most important part of the SCA. After working so hard to get *a* site for events, I really resent the selfishness :\

[liadethornegge.livejournal.com]

Oh no, not the flap on the authenti-SCA list.

Aah, right. Well, I'm not on there :) Glasses are such a personal thing that almost everyone has an opinion on it. I didn't use to see glasses even in photographs. It's been growing in me lately. So, I shall endeavor to do better in the future!

People who foul things up for everyone are just poopy-heads. So there. Not very chivalrous of them.

[sharikkamur.livejournal.com]

As a glasses wearer I try to take mine of for photos for just that reason. Now if I had the money and time to get a pair of prescription 16th century spectacles it would be a different matter, but I agree - they're just wrong!

[purple-peril.livejournal.com]

Loose hair isn't always a no-no, it depends on period.
I hate hate hate hate wearing my veil so sometimes I go with it loose and I have documentation to show it's ok.

[folo1.livejournal.com]

I would love to see the documentation. I have not discovered any culture where wwithin the SCA's purview that went hatless and, in fact, only a few cultures where men can legitimately go aboutr with uncovered heads. I've found it more a matter of socio-economic and marital status. Thanks!

[purplemermaid.livejournal.com]

I thought it would be quite easy for men to go hatless in the SCA - although they shouldbe carrying them - because so often royalty are present.

[folo1.livejournal.com]

I had always thought the grabbing of the hat and clutching it in front of the betters was a Victorian concept perpetuated by Hollywood portrayals. I haven't made a concentrated search, though, so if you have examples, I'd appreciate seeing them!

[liadethornegge.livejournal.com]

That is true, it's not always wrong, but for quite a lot of our period you rarely see a woman with her hair loose.

I love hair myself, really, I do. But for my own portrayal you will rarely, if ever, see a 16th century lady with her hair loose, nor a 1410 lady. Those are my times, and I want to do my best.

I'd never go up to anyone at an event and say: "Oi, you, why is your hair loose, you're doing it all wrong!" I wouldn't even think it. I may /think/ to myself that: "Ooh, just imagine how that would look with the proper coif on top."

That said; tell me about wearing your hair loose? When? How? Maybe I can get license to be lazy sometimes :)

[frualeydis.livejournal.com]

There are examples of married women (I presume that at least the markgräfin is, it's not a title you have as unmarried) wearing their hair loose under a veil, or a fillet and chin band in the Codex Manesse (http://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/sammlung2/allg/cpg.xml?docname=cpg848). Not jsu tthe hair though, not when married.
But maybe you don't want to wear a huge, shapeless dress ;)

/Eva

[liadethornegge.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes! That was your outfit for the feast at Visby, right? I thought that looked lovely. You've got nice hair :)

But, you are right, unfortunately I don't want to wear the great big shapeless dress that goes with that particular hairstyle.

[love3angle.livejournal.com]

ARRGH! After the last few flameouts, I always cringe when I see the word "glasses" in a post, LOL! Someone who wears them always feels attacked and gets their undies in a bundle. *sigh*

I greatly like your approach, though! You say what bugs you and then set your resolutions for your own conduct to combat these peeves. Nicely done! :-)

[liadethornegge.livejournal.com]

I always cringe when I see the word "glasses" in a pos

I know, I know. I just didn't think about it that way. I am so sorry ;) Although I wear them so I should possibly be afforded more leeway... right? Yeah, right. :)

As for my approach, really, what else makes any sense? I can't control anyone else, and if I am that annoyed by it in others I'd better pony up and do better myself. Also, the one good photo of me in my surcote is marred by me wearing my glasses. I want to kick myself still.

[folo1.livejournal.com]

"As for my approach, really, what else makes any sense? I can't control anyone else, and if I am that annoyed by it in others I'd better pony up and do better myself."

Heartily agreed. You can't switch the rules midway through the ballgame. at least not easily. But you can do what I--and so many others--have done: Form a new organization and firmly state the rules to begin with. Nope, it'll never be as large as the SCA and, to tell you the truth, that relieves me.

[liadethornegge.livejournal.com]

I must admit, I am still endlessly charmed by the bigness of the SCA. I found it in An Tir, after all, and am playing the same game (well, almost) in Drachenwald.

I can find my own little corner in all of this bigness though, and I rather like that :)

[folo1.livejournal.com]

"I must admit, I am still endlessly charmed by the bigness of the SCA."

No offense, but why? I've asked this question before, and I've never received a satisfactory answer. I always have more fun at the smaller SCA events.

[liadethornegge.livejournal.com]

Well, obviously, since you started a new group, no answer is going to satisfy you :)

For myself, I rather like the international aspect of it. I can go to nearly anywhere in the modern world and find a group of like-minded individuals who share a common ground.

I like the large events where I can be a small part of a big thing. I like my little corner of it, but if that corner is all there is I would be a little sad.

I like that there are so many different people involved, and for so many different reasons.

The diversity means I am subjected to many more things, I can look to my right and find a viking, then look to my left and find a renaissance man, and I can be inspired by both.

It teaches me many things, still, that I can benefit from learning.

I like the big open top, where there is no requirement that your stride must be 1.14 yards, consist of exact heel-to-toe ratio of 3:2, and the shoe you take it in must be made in such a way, and from such material. I would feel very put upon by regulations and inspection as a requisite for joining.

I rather like the feeling of being the subject of the Prince and Princess and the King and Queen, and all of that romantic courtesy, chivalry and pageantry.

I like it. I don't know how else to put it.

[folo1.livejournal.com]

"Well, obviously, since you started a new group, no answer is going to satisfy you :)"

I probably mispoke or didn't say enough. I've started a new branch of Regia Anglorum, which is part of an international group and which is part of a large movement with very similar standards, so that I could go almost anywhere and play. Look at Hastings a few weeks ago. How many thousand reenactors were there from all parts of the world?

I won't pick nits, I have found much of what you stated elsewhere, in other organizations. And of the ones you were dead on about, I love inspections and despise being in a group where I feel totally powerless.

Thanks for the response. The reasons you gave were, for the most part, totally different from the specious ones I've been given in the past! Thanks very much for not getting defensive and protrective of your hobby!