Omphaloskepsis: Scaling Ivory Towers – SCA and Academia

The Society for Creative Anachronism has its share of people doing some landmark research within experimental archaeology. Yet, within academic circles, many SCAdians are told to de-emphasize their involvement. This article will go into why SCAdians have such a polarizing view within academia, and will also discuss ways to give a better impression of the …

Don’t Throw Away Your Shot: proposal-writing for the SCA in five Hamilton quotes

There are a lot of things to get outraged over, including in one's hobby. In the time of Coronavirus, that all seems to be more magnified, as we're all stuck at home, with very little chance of meeting our friends and chosen family. It's tumultuous both in and out of the Society, and with several …

Omphaloskepsis: Anachronistic Learning in the Information Age

The Society for Creative Anachronism is by large a society based on information transfer, whether it be our own customs and law to how to create medieval items or even learning our method of martial art. Even with this, though, how critical is it exactly that our learning and information transfer happen only at events, …

Zaneta’s Silver Hammer

When an opportunity drops in your lap to write a text for a fellow herald, sometimes, you drop everything and do it. Zaneta (our current Eyas herald) has been doing some fantastic glasswork, and her ability and patience to teach people how to do things with a rather finicky artform has not gone unnoticed. So, …

Demystifying Heraldic Submissions: Waiting Is the Hardest Part

Picture the scene: you've got your name picked out, your badge forms coloured in, and you're itching to get your device painted on your shield. You go to your local herald, and as you're discussing the process, the question of how long your submission has comes up. This article will go into the submissions process …

Omphaloskepsis: Consent

It also means that we have got to learn how to accept that other people have boundaries, whether they be sexual, emotional, or even physical, and learn to work with people, but to also extend grace when people invariably mess up on those boundaries.

Let Me Google That For You: How to Use Internet Tools to Research Effectively

In my post Experimental Archaelogy and Social Media, I talked about the concept of provenance, and why it's so important to historians of all levels. This post, though, will go a bit further in showing that there are tools available to all of us in properly determining where the original post comes from. I was …

Experimental Archaeology and Social Media

So, it's been another week of a post being shared on That Social Media Site of purported 14th century Byzantine garments as they make the rounds. . . again. They're beautiful, well-crafted, and the photos look like they've been taken from a museum of sorts. The fabric looks right, and there's plenty of bling. So, …

SCA Philosophy Question Ahoy!

Since November 28, 2017, I’ve been asking my social media friends list (which, yes, comprises mostly of SCA folks) questions about SCA philosophy, SCA personae, and the like. Sometimes, the questions may have been a bit pointed, and sometimes, well, it’s curiosity. I know I’ve repeated some in my questions (as I’m going through the …

Omphaloskepsis: that pesky C

Before we get started: I will be watching commentary and IP addresses on this post.  Any use of the terms "Nazi," or related terms will result in being blocked.  I will not tolerate it, nor will I also tolerate bashing of individuals.  Any conversation that is not constructive will be removed.  Commentary is okay, but …