Notebook of Randomness

I finished Knights of the Old Republic this morning. _Took_ me freaking long enough. I think I will tell Chris to never ever give me a computer game ever ever again. I have a thesis to think about. Anyway, the ending was annoying. Blah.

Also, when I finished with the climactic battle, I was actually _sweating_. Computer games that get me so mentally involved that my adrenaline reactions kick in freak me out. It _can't_ be healthy.

Anyway... the Kansas City Renaissance Festival this weekend was fun. It's a permanent setup, and extremely cool. There were shows like mad, including real jousting, a birds-of-prey demonstration, a guy who did some insane tricks with fire, several plays going on at any given moment, a maypole, etc., etc. There were tests of skill and strength like axe/dagger/star throwing and archery. And of course there were shops... though I was largely disappointed with the selection. Lots of commercial jewelry and a surprising dearth of chainmaile. And the truly impressive stuff was way, way beyond my meager pocketbook. Hand-forged, battle-ready weapons; those awesome sculpted leather masks; middle eastern silk clothing; all sorts of things, really. I contented myself with spending money on food and entertainment--kind of a shame, really, since I like shopping at Faires, but there just wasn't anything I _had_ to have (that I could also afford). The food was good: I had a scotch egg and apple cider for lunch, both excellent, and I still have leftover cinnamon almonds. Mmmmm. :-) The birds of prey show was run by a bird sanctuary, and they took up a collection afterwards with the help of a white-beaked raven who would catch shiny coins out of the air. That was too fun to pass up.

I took a few pictures--if I ever figure out a website, I'll try and post some.

www.kcrenfest.com

Check it out. I might try to rustle up some people to go with me this weekend. I would like everyone even remotely associated with the Whitman RenFaire to note the theme of their faire, and to rejoice in the fact that We Did It First.

In other news, today I became officially certified to drive a giant 15-passenger van (though with no more than 12 people including the driver in it, per school policy). Certification involved watching a one-hour video. No actual driving practice was required. Hmm.

In other-other news, my students today couldn't distinguish galena from graphite, quartz from halite (taste it! I said. Eww, no way! They said. How are you going to know what it is? I said. Aren't you going to tell us? They said. Sheesh.), or calcite from anything else. I was running around trying to help where I could, but there was much confusion overall. Maybe tomorrow I'll make sure to remind them to _Read The Directions_ since clearly very few people bothered to today, costing some of them over an hour. *sigh* Maybe I'll get the hang of this one of these days.