Part two of my liveblog of Robert’s Rules of Order

Arguably the correct format for this is TikTok but I refuse to create short-form video content

At the event we went to yesterday, we talked a little bit about my persistent joke/delusion that I will be “in my prime” with my skill on the rapier field in about 5-10 years, and that the Crown Tournament fought by Rapier will also make it to other SCA kingdoms in 5-10 years (“just in time!”). I’ve had this opinion for 3-5 years and it remains 5-10 years in the future despite the passage of time. Were it an option now, I would absolutely enter a crown tournament by rapier (regardless of my likelihood of winning), for the pageantry and fun of it / because I don’t think it would be as fun to reign without my wife and neither of us are armored combatants. The opinion that I think would make me the most enemies, which I would have more levers of change accessible towards enacting were I to be crown, is that SCA Crown should be an in-game designation only. The job is to look pretty and give people awards; the job should not be to adjudicate actual IRL disputes, serve as a stopgap for harassment complaints or legal issues, have actual power of most kinds, etc. Regardless of whether I am crown at any point in my life, this interest in nonprofit governance will shape the rooms I’m present in. But, that’s not a very fun royal whim. Royal whims are ideally at least a little fun I think? Aífe says that her royal whim would be: a preference for live music / no recorded music at events. She loves early music and is very willing to hand out instruments to make this happen. The number of medieval instruments per square foot of our apartment proves this out. She has been learning to write counterpoint the past few months! I have decided that my royal whim would be: I do not like it when people say “learn to parry” on the rapier field. This is often said about double kills in tournaments. It is not actionable (what exactly is the means by which parrying is learned?) and, while it may be intended to be self-deprecating, often our newest fighters are the ones being deprecated. If you do slip up in my presence and say it out of habit, I would request that before the end of that event, your penance is that you must _teach_ someone how to parry (or otherwise counter) some action that you like to take on the rapier field. What would your whims be, if you could wave a wand for it? Is the concept of a royal whim fundamentally incompatible with my wish for crown to not have as much power? If you are a royal peer, would this even work?

I went to see Cory Doctorow speak a couple weeks ago and had more thoughts than fit in a short post, so here is a long one.