Welcome to my SCA (Society for Creative Anachronism) page on the web. I am pretty new to the SCA and I am putting up this webpage to document my experiences in the SCA. I hope others will find this webpage informational and/or entertaining.
I will be placing my impressions and opinions on here as well as information I think would be useful to people. If my information is wrong or you want to send me any other comments please feel free to do so. My SCA persona email address is:
jheromyn@kormanworld.net
Note: I reserve the right to print anything you write me. ;-)
"The university computer system was better than no computer at all. But Randy was humiliated. Like every other high-powered academic computing network, this one was based on an industrial-strength operating system called UNIX, which had a learning curve like the Matterhorn, and lacked the cuddly and stylish features of the personal computers then coming into vogue. Randy had used it quite a bit as an undergraduate and knew his way around. Even so, learning how to write good code on the thing required a lot of time. His life had changed when Charlene had come along, and now it changed more; he dropped out of the fantasy role-playing game circuit altogether, stopped going to meetings of the Society for Creative Anachronism, and began to spend all of his free time either with Charlene or in front of a computer terminal. All in all, this was probably a change for the better. With Charlene, he did things he wouldn't have done otherwise, like getting exercise, or going to see live music. And at the computer, he was learning new skills, and he was creating something. It might be something completely useless, but at least he was creating."
"Anyway, Randy finished his software after a year and a half. It was a success; Chester and Avi liked it. Randy was moderately pleased at having built something so complicated that actually worked, but he had no illusions about its being good for anything. He was sort of embarrassed at having wasted so much time and mental energy on the project. But he knew that if he hadn't been writing code, he'd have spent the same amount of time playing games or going to Society for Creative Anachronism meetings in medieval drag, so it all zeroed out in the end. Spending the time in front of the computer was arguably better, because it had honed his programming skills, which had been pretty sharp to begin with. On the other hand, he'd done it all the UNIX system, which was for scientists and engineers -- not a savvy move in an age when all the money was in personal computers."
My chosen SCA name is:
Jheromyn le Bordar ben Mikiel
My modern (SCA people often use the word mundane) name is Ian Jerimi Korman. I have historical background for my SCA persona name located at this url if you are interested:
http://www.kormanworld.net/sca/scaname.html
My name is not registered yet but I hope I have a good start.
I have known about the SCA since I was in high school (this would be back in the 1980's C.E.). I am not sure how advertised it was though. I lived in Marshall, Michigan (a pretty small city) on a farm at the time and had plenty of other things to keep me busy.
After high school I joined the Navy (1988 C.E.) and was stationed in Guam. I knew some people in the SCA there but I didn't join then either. Desert Storm pretty much kept me occupied.
Ok, I could drag this out further but I will spare everyone and jump straight to the present, 2001 C.E. (btw, C.E. stands for Current Era and B.C.E. stands for Before Current Era - these are scholarly accepted replacements for date designations for those of us who aren't Christians). I had some medieval looking clothes (SCA people often use the word garb) and I had a friend that also wanted to get involved with the SCA so I decided to give it a try. I live near Ann Arbor, Michigan and there is a pretty active group here.
The first meeting I ended up going to was a business meeting. I discovered that the SCA business meetings can be pretty confusing and boring for new people. There was a lot of terms I was unfamiliar with, talk of events that I had no idea of what they were, and references to people I don't know. Granted, a few of the terms were explained for us newcomers but that only helped a little. I think they could have been a little more organized but I will talk about that later under 'What I think the SCA is about.' I wish they would have started the meeting by formally welcoming guests/newcomers or just going around and having everyone introduce themselves and their title/position or the fact that they are new.
All I can say is "Thank goodness for the Internet!" With the help of my friend and the WWW I was able to learn that the Ann Arbor group was called the Barony of Cynnabar and that they were part of a confederation of groups designated as the Region of Pentamere which is part of the Midrealm Kingdom. Ok, this information in itself isn't very helpful. However, I had a leg up on things since I knew from conversations I had with SCA people in Guam that the entire world is broken up into kingdoms, baronies, etc. just like medieval Europe was.
So, I think I may be a little fortunate in the fact that my local group, the Barony of Cynnabar (which basically serves Washtenaw County area of Michigan), has a pretty good site on the WWW AND they have quite a few events, meetings, and activities going on. I discovered some clubs on Yahoo where they discuss the SCA: SCA Newcomers, SCA Arts and Sciences, SCA Singles, and SCA Club; and I have heard that groups in other areas seem to vary a lot. The saying I have already heard too many times (it is true though) is: "You have to remember that most of the work is done by volunteers."
The official SCA webpage says, "The avowed purpose of the SCA is the study and recreation of the European Middle Ages, its crafts, sciences, arts, traditions, literature, etc. The SCA "period" is defined to be Western civilization before 1600 AD, concentrating on the Western European High Middle Ages." I think that this statement is true but that the SCA is just too diverse for this simple statement. I personally think it would be simpler (and I am a strong believer in K.I.S.S.) if everyone stuck to the avowed purpose and period but they don't. In the long run it is probably beneficial to the club to include people that want to study and recreate non-European and non-Medieval period cultures. Basically, if I were to right the purpose of the SCA I would right it as, "The purpose of the SCA is to bring people together to study and recreate pre-1600 C.E. civilization and culture. The SCA also supports a 'safety first' fighting recreation branch."
I think the SCA attracts various types of people that just want to have a good time i.e. fun. Some people want to learn and work on crafts. Some people want an outlet to learn, practice, and perform singing, dancing, and instrument playing. Some people want to bash each other(with minimum risk of being hurt). Some people want to learn more about various pre-1600 civilization and culture. Some people want to dress up and interact in persona. Of course, some people want to do all of the above.
