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[Jace]

Aren't spangenhelms and chainmail a little early for renaissance? I thought they'd mostly moved on to plate by then.
 

I think the people who wear plate (like...real plate armor, not the plastic stuff) at ren fairs are a little crazy, mostly because I think they would be too hot to enjoy anything. Also it's all heavy and stuff, not that chainmail isn't. Though I have seen some guys make really fantastic leather armor and wear it and I am always jealous. Also one dude had a magnificent set of wood armor (he was an elf, not really renaissance, but still cool) that I pined over.

Personally, the things I'll be making for the ren fest will be more medieval, but I do not have skills to make an Elizabethan dress. This I can handle, but this is way beyond me.

Actually! Plate armor that is made to fit the wearer (as all plate armor of the period was) is not as heavy as one would think. It was generally 18-22g steel and had many arming points to relieve the weight.
Chainmail rests solely on the shoulders and generally a belt is worn to help mitigate the weight but plate often weighs less than chain.

[Carl-E]

And firearms were coming into more prominent usage right around the middle of the Renaissance time period, I think.

^this

Defensive technology is always behind offensive technology.  And "more prominent" usage is not the same a "common" usage.  Most people were still getting hit with blades in battle (or cannonballs/grapeshot/shrapnel, but what're ya gonna do?), so chain was still being used quite a bit through the renaissance. 

Not by the wealthy, mind you...

[BeoPuppy]

[doombilly]

gun skills, bo staff skills...

um anyway, I'm only gonna tell you kids to get off my lawn one more time.

[BeoPuppy]

A friend of mine being all weeping angel.

[Patrick]

This is my video game mass-murderer face + hat hair.

[LTK]

What's in the cage?

[ZJGent]

This is a picture I took of a derelict old pub near where I live. It is very creepy! It has this feeling about it, like it is haunted by the spirit of an old party long-since dwindled into nostalgia.

Also it has a wonky roof!



Look at that wonky roof.

[Patrick]

What's in the cage?

A very mean hamster named Peacebone. Never name your animals after Animal Collective songs, they always turn out mean.

[Elysiana]

I really don't like pics of myself, so here's a pic of something I made. She's 10 months old now! How the hell did that happen, guys?

[TheEvilDog]

Actually! Plate armor that is made to fit the wearer (as all plate armor of the period was) is not as heavy as one would think. It was generally 18-22g steel and had many arming points to relieve the weight.
Chainmail rests solely on the shoulders and generally a belt is worn to help mitigate the weight but plate often weighs less than chain.

Not only that, but true plate armour weighs about a third less then the equipment carried by modern soldiers on their back. The modern interpretation of plate armour comes from Hollywood, where they would used Jousting armour, a type that was meant to be heavy and reinforced, as it was supposed to used for safety. Most of whom wore plate were trained to do so from childhood, meaning that they were gradually used to it, as opposed to people who wear nowadays who aren't necessarily used to it. And, there are books and reports of plate being highly mobile, with many knights able to run over significant distances, swim in full armour, as well as performing backflips from a height. (/armour nerd)

[Carl-E]

I really don't like pics of myself, so here's a pic of something I made. She's 10 months old now! How the hell did that happen, guys?

(image of a ridiculously cute kid sitting in a stock pot)

Hey, look!  Elysiana made dinner! 


When will she be done?  I'm hungry...   

[Barmymoo]

What the heck, it is definitely only about twenty minutes since I was wondering whether you had given birth yet. How on earth is she so huge and so person-like?

[Redball]

I really don't like pics of myself, so here's a pic of something I made. She's 10 months old now! How the hell did that happen, guys?

I think I know what you mean. My also adorable formerly-10-month-old is now 38 1/2 -- years, not months. How the hell did that happen?

[Jace]

Actually! Plate armor that is made to fit the wearer (as all plate armor of the period was) is not as heavy as one would think. It was generally 18-22g steel and had many arming points to relieve the weight.
Chainmail rests solely on the shoulders and generally a belt is worn to help mitigate the weight but plate often weighs less than chain.

Not only that, but true plate armour weighs about a third less then the equipment carried by modern soldiers on their back. The modern interpretation of plate armour comes from Hollywood, where they would used Jousting armour, a type that was meant to be heavy and reinforced, as it was supposed to used for safety. Most of whom wore plate were trained to do so from childhood, meaning that they were gradually used to it, as opposed to people who wear nowadays who aren't necessarily used to it. And, there are books and reports of plate being highly mobile, with many knights able to run over significant distances, swim in full armour, as well as performing backflips from a height. (/armour nerd)

True that. My vambraces and cuisses are made with 18g and 16g steel respectively and they weigh basically nothing.

[Dollface]

I really don't like pics of myself, so here's a pic of something I made. She's 10 months old now! How the hell did that happen, guys?

pot baby pic

That remind me of this.

[Elysiana]

Hehe! Yeah, but Mackenzie actually LIKES being boiled into a stew. She's gotta simmer for a few more years though.

My husband has decided, since we have a super-cute picture of her sitting in a laundry hamper too, that he is going to start an album called Mackenzie In Stuff and try to take a picture of her sitting in something different every day. I worry.

ETA:



That pic's from about 2 months ago. I can tell a big diff in her face! Wow.

[Carl-E]

So there was this dinner, where my daughter was honored for the charity we started - originally to help with her own medical and travel expenses, but now she helps others with it.  It was quite a fancy to-do, and there are lots of good pics and videos, but these are what I was able to snap on my phone and put in here...

My older daughter (in the dress) and her new girlfriend.  She broke her foot last week...



My younger daughter, in a rare moment of walking unassisted;



My wife with the two of them;



I told you I have a suit!

[Elysiana]

You have a lovely family! You all look very nice!

[Papersatan]

Stephen and I took my niece out to lunch.  We had Japanese.  She wanted to use chopsticks like us.  She gave it a good go, but mostly just ate with her hands.

[Lines]

I love watching kids try to eat with chopsticks.

You have a lovely family! You all look very nice!

What she said! It's nice to see a picture of your younger daughter smiling, after what you've told us about her. 

[valley_parade]

Oddly enough, Stephen was the one that taught me how to properly use chopsticks, as well.


Fact.

[TheEvilDog]

I love watching kids try to eat with chopsticks.

Third date I had with my girlfriend, we made sushi. Right before an unfortunate incident with a blob of wasabi, I was impressing her with my skills with chopsticks, despite the fact I had never used them before XD

Anyway, some scenic photos from when I was in Finland over Easter.
The view from the bar of the Hotel Torni, which, while no longer the tallest building in Helsinki, is the highest bar in the city. (I made the mistake of wearing a short sleeve shirt with a t-shirt underneath it. Very chilly. And this coming from someone who loves the cold.)




And then on Easter Sunday, my girlfriend and I went for a walk around and on a lake. (Lots of jokes were made about walking on water....with a loud crack as the ice shifted as the punchline)

[Carl-E]

I haven't been there, but I have done that - and nothing's colder than a wet fleece-lined jacket after falling through the ice...

[TheEvilDog]

To be fair, the ice was about a foot and a half thick, with the thaw about a month away, so we were safe enough. But then again, as someone whose main experience with ice is the cubes I pour a drink over, I wasn't 100% comfortable with walking on the ice as each shift of the ice had me thinking "WTF!?!?!?!?CRAAAAAAAAAAAAAP!!!!" Still walked along though, nice day too.

[Patrick]

When I lived in Albania I used to spend summers working in Alaska, and wound up dating this awesome girl there. One February I was able to come visit. It would snow a lot, but some days it would warm up so much that the snow would melt just enough to turn into thick, hard ice by nightfall.

One day we were walking home from the grocery store, and my girlfriend at the time slipped, fell, and broke her left wrist (she's a lefty, and an artist too).

I don't fucks with no ice.

[Patrick]

Oh hey look I have photos to contribute. Some stranger took them while I was performing at an open mic that my friend runs, and now I have found them! Here I am playing one of my favorite Troubador songs.



And here I am doing my best John Bonham impersonation. The only thing missing is the burliness.

[Carl-E]

the bongo player has enough for both of you. 

[Patrick]

Fun fact: he builds guns and does blacksmithing for shits and giggles. The man is the posterboy for happy retirement.

[Welu]

Some photos of my party last night. Props to parents for letting me borrow their house and the cake they bought.



Most of the group. I'm struggling to cut the cake here. It's a funny shape.


My mate outside the affectionately nicknamed take-out van: "The Muck Truck". It used to be called something else but people called it that and now it actually has that name painted on the van.




I got sick of having my hair in pigtails pretty quick. Also had a strip of red and black material tied in a bow around the tails but it got pully and sore pretty quick, especially with the red hair spray making my freshly cut/clean hair rock hard.


The costume my Mammy made from scratch in its almost full glory. Even had almost identical red/black shoes.

[dr. nervioso]

Tuathal, I here by declare your beard/ or whatever you would like to call that style of facial hair to be the best thing ever.

[Patrick]

Some older lady came to the open mic at my bar this week and took pictures of me and some of the various folks I jammed with! In this one, I look quite interested in what I'm singing:



Here I'm playing drums with my friend Charlie on guitar and some drug-fried dude named Casey on bass (turns out he's actually pretty good for jamming with):



Here, my good friend Drew and I are probably playing Third Eye Blind, as we're quite prone to do:



GUYS I HAVE A FUCKING LEOPARD PRINT WRISTBAND

[valley_parade]

Hey sup LPB Tele.

[Patrick]

Fun fact: less awesome playing and sounding than that light yellow Squier. Dead serious. The only thing I like more about the Fender is that color and the fact that the knobs turn easier. *sigh*



My band had a show today in the middle of downtown Livermore. Since this town is kinda a shithole of white suburbia, we did a mega pisstake on all the old men walking around in Hawaiian shirts. You can't see it here but Matt (left) upped the ante by wearing socks and sandals.

[Carl-E]

Now that's a look! 

Move over, doombilly...


Once a month, the department has a "bow tie day".  Our department chair wears 'em, along with vests. fedoras, and he collects and uses fountain pens.  He thought it would be a fun way to promote unity in the department. 

More and more of the department joins in each month.  I'm at a branch campus, but no reason I couldn't join in! 



(It's my concert tie, usually worn with a tux shirt and black siut)

[BeoPuppy]

Hello!

[Barmymoo]

I don't want to worry you but your baby is upside down.

[BeoPuppy]

It's a problem. We think he's got some aussie DNA in him.

[schimmy]

I was assuming a radioactive spider bit him. Come to think of it, I suppose that would explain how Australians manage to cling on.

[Patrick]

What I don't get is why they all appear right side up in photos... Shifty characters, them Ozzies.

[Jimmy the Squid]

We hold the cameras upside-down so as not to confuse you.



I'm so tired.

[doombilly]

Now that's a look! 
Move over, doombilly...
...

(It's my concert tie, usually worn with a tux shirt and black siut)

Moving on over. In other bowtie themed actions... not a BT, but the promoter of this show tied my regular Windsor tie into a makeshift bow.
sorry if this is a repost.

[Carl-E]

Oooh, I posted poorly.  The move over warning was on account of the Hawaiian shirt gig, not on my account.  My little bowtie will never threaten your levels of cool....   

[Elysiana]

Mackenzie got to try watermelon this weekend.

[lepetitfromage]

Awww, I guess she liked it! And who can blame her? I'd eat watermelon for every meal if I knew I could survive on it.

[doombilly]

Oooh, I posted poorly.  The move over warning was on account of the Hawaiian shirt gig, not on my account.  My little bowtie will never threaten your levels of cool....   

Oh no, I got that. I was just compressing that into a theme. Also,
BOW TIES!!!
http://madeinforesthills.com/the-bow-tie-collection/

[Patrick]

Your gigs are so much cooler :p

Don't be so hard on yourself! Just get a new harmonica player who knows what they're doing and you'll be set.

Meanwhile, I still ain't even done gigging, you guys.

[Redball]

In response to Patrick: The singer playing harmonica in the wrong key and me mouthing "what the fuck" at him.
I will never understand why he decided to do that.

So maybe he was trying to get the two of you to bend?

[Carl-E]

There's bending, and then there's the wrong damn key.  Does he have more than one harmonica?  Maybe he grabbed the wrong one.  Unless it's chromatic, he's stuck. 

Or an idiot. 

[Redball]

There's bending, and then there's the wrong damn key.

Geez, I thought it was a joke. TBH, I own a few harmonicas but never learned to play blues, never learned to bend at will, never put in the time to learn. My choir partied a lot in the 70s and 80s and went across the street to a bar after rehearsals, and when we started to sing -- Country Roads was sort of a theme song -- I'd ask the guitar player what key she was in.