This weekend presented many many opportunities to interact with people. Some interactions such as the invasion cruise, and the breakfast with the pirates events were scheduled, others were not. When not scheduled to be anywhere specific I wandered the festival grounds, as well as the main street in town. Originally Sunday was supposed to be the day of the parade. Due to inclement weatherthe wrath of god part 2 the parade was canceled. During the time of the parade I had gotten word that a number of the performers were performing at the nearby holiday inn. I decided to check it out, rather than take the short route that also provided more cover from the rain, I decided “ehh, I can’t really get any wetter than i already am” and as I took the longer route down main street, where the parade would have gone. As I turned the corner onto main street I discovered that at least some Wisconsinites don’t let rain end a parade. Huddled under a few awnings, and door openings, wearing parkas and rain gear was a collection of kids and adults apparently waiting for the parade. “Look there’s one, there’s a pirate!!!” I sauntered over to them and asked them what they were doing… “Isn’t there supposed to be a parade?” one woman asked. I responded, that yes, under normal conditions there should be a parade, but sadly it was canceled due to the rain. At that the kids in the group looked rather downtrodden. “Lookin forward ta the parade were ya?”, I asked the kids “uh huh” came the response. “Well, I’ll tell ya what, I can’t get you a full parade with floats and everythin’ but what do you say to having yer own personal private pirate parade?” They looked at me like I was from mars… “No, really, how about I give ya yer own personal private pirate parade… wow thats a mouth full isn’t it?” the kids chuckeld. “Oh, its funny is it? let hear the whole lot a’ ya say it” the kids stared blankly… “Right, let me hear you say ‘I want my personal private pirate parade!’” The mother was the first to say it. then with a bit more encouragement the kids all asked for it. Fortunate for me, at that point two patrons dressed in their pirate finest came by with umbrellas… “Alright then, if these good pirates wouldst indulge me for just a moment, I now give ya your own personal private pirate parade!” At that the 3 of us marched down the street in front of the ‘crowd’ , waving I made sure to over exaggerate my steps and used my paddle as a baton ala bozo’s circus, and shouting “I love a parade, a personal private pirate parade…” After we marched past the group I broke off from the patron couple who continued on (i assume happy to get away from my insanity) and returned to the group. I then handed out my mini messages in a bottle to the kids, and informed the whole group that there were things still going on at the festival site, and that there were also things happening at the Holiday Inn right down the street from them. At that they all made their way down to the hotel, and joined in the group there who were being entertained by the Jolly Rodgers, Bounding Main, and Jock Stewart. I followed along behind slowly.

Sometimes things happen that just solidify in my mind why I put myself through the physically exhausting experience of interacting with people at faires and festivals. This weekend had a number of moments, but one in particular stands out. This one nearly broke me on the spot, and really… who wants to see a grizzly pirate tearing up…

Close to the end of the day yesterday Ian and I were wandering playing with patrons. He stepped away for a few minutes to talk to some people and I was left alone interacting with people as they strolled by. These interactions are not much more than a wal-mart greeter “good day, i hope ye be enjoyin yer day” type thing, when this little girl and her mother and father approached me. She was about five or six and had a definite case of shyness. She wore a pink princess shirt, and darker pink shorts, with an eye patch pushed up into her hair. I could tell she was really interested in talking to me though because her eyes were huge, and she just couldn’t take them off me. I knelt down to eliminate some of the physical barrier and spoke to her. I asked her if she was having a good time. She nodded. Her mother then spoke, “we’ve been looking for you all day!” “What? Ye have, well you can stop lookin’ now as ye done found me”. The mother chuckled, and at that the little girl produced a pink sequined purse she had been hiding. She raised it up in front of her, and very carefully unzipped the zipper. She then every so gingerly reached two fingers into the purse, her eyes still transfixed on mine. She struggled for a moment to try to find what she was looking for then ever so slowly and cautiously drew a small glass stone from her purse. I smiled, and her mother spoke “She’s had it with her since January!” I nearly lost it right there. I then smiled again and asked her to show me once more, “What color lass?” giving me a moment to fight for composure. She did, and so I leaned in closely and asked her “So you’ve kept it safe ?” she nodded. “good lass, and has it worked for you?” at that her eyes exploded with delight, and a glow came across her face that could have lit the darkest of night, her head began to nod so vigorously that I was afraid she might end up hurting herself. “Awww good lass, you keep it safe and it will always work for you, I promise!” she nodded and we parted ways. I then walked off away from people to give myself a much needed moment to recover, and to drink it all in.
Anyone who says there is no such thing as magic needs to have their head, and their heart examined. It’s all around you, you just have to know where to look.

Wednesday our student worker and I were talking, and we got to wondering if there was anything for MythTV (Her husband setup a myth box for them) to transfer video to the iPod. After I got home, I looked into it, and found the Myth2iPod project. I did some work on getting it installed on my MythTV box, and set it to encode some of my video over night. When I got to work today I tried adding the video to the iPod and it failed. I spent most of tonight looking into this conundrum, and finally came across mention that using the H.264 codec on linux will result in a video that is playable on the ipod, but that will not be able to be copied to the iPod via iTunes…
I switched the default setting in ‘/etc/nuvexportrc’ to mpeg4, and tried encoding another video.
Success!

Now, when I record a program using MythTV it will automatically transcode it into the mpeg4 format, and create a video podcast entry for that program. iTunes should then see the change, download the video, and i can add it to my iPod to watch at will. This certainly makes it easier to keep up on my shows!

MUAHAHAHA!!! I opened my mail today and what to my wondering eyes did appear, but a… nope not a miniature sleigh nor eight tiny reindeer… but 2 photos from the Port Washington Holiday parade!

I have scanned them using the low quality scanner I have and posted them. When I get a chance I will be using a better one to get better scans, and will replace these.

I’m home safe, the normally 3.5 hour route home from port, by way of the girlfriends house, took an extra hour due to the weather. Boy am I glad we left at 8 when we did.

Thank You to those who contacted me, a meetup was just not in the cards. The parade, and post parade activities turned into an all night event. I’m really glad she went with, it was fun having her there.

I’ll post more, when I have slept… But WOW was this a fun trip, and worth it.

Bests:

• Picture with Santa Clause and the pirates!
• Us becoming the #2 attraction at the photo shop while we were there
• Helping the fund raiser to teach teddy bears to drive
• Jack Sparrow and the Beauty Salon
• Having a fellow pirate who could handle “yes and…” and run with it. Ian you rock
• Cute wee little lass who wanted to talk and talk to us pirates. That wonderment, and glow is just amazing
• Boy who shouted… “HEY I REMEMBER YOU!!!” while grinning from ear to ear.
• Chasing after the horse drawn carriage, shouting about my ship leaving with out me

Worst:

• Weather on the way home.
• Having to leave early casue of the weather, and distance

I beat the game. I still have 57 stars to find, but I did beat it.

Bought it yesterday at lunch, finished it 10 minutes ago. *YAWN* Going to be a long day now….

I did it. I finally got around to making the replacement scabbard for my knife I use on my pirate garb.

Not bad for my 1st wood working project in god only knows how long. Definitely my 1st one ever using a router.

This past weekend was the Port Washington Pirate Festival. I, and a number of friends, volunteered to add some character to the street this year, as opposed to just attending last year. I have to say, I had an absolute BLAST.

The festival is growing quite well, and is certainly received well by the town and its inhabitants. New this year was a Fireworks show that really seemed to draw out a lot of people, despite the rainy weather.

I think I could hear the phrase “Look mommy!!! A REEEEEAALLLLL PIRATE!!!!” gushed in utter delight from a child a thousand more times and never come close to getting tired of it. I can’t even begin to count the number of pictures that I posed for with families.

Off and On both days Sarah and I teamed up to wander the lanes and play with the patrons. Read on for details

(more…)

While waiting for something to finish up before going home I stumbled across this on someones blog.  I have no idea how accurate it is, but I found it fun.

As of 5 minutes ago…

I am completely, 100%  free of Credit Card debt!
Now I can save for new car, or trips etc, and actually invest some money as opposed to having it sucked away by the evil CC companies.

This is the 1st time this has been the case since I was a teenager.

I intend t keep it this way as long as possible too.

(Of course the universe likes to torment me, and so last night my glasses broke…  But I think I have enough socked away in my emergency fund  to cover new glasses.  Maybe I’ll even consider asking for a prescription for contacts to wear during faire…. maybe…

(Hey, where did night 4 go? huh.. I didn’t write it up… oh well…)

Tonight was pretty dead, but there were a few of the “regulars” of the library crowd that did eventually show up. Bud was thrilled. We all played around, laughed, joked, sang, and had a good time. Marv was off tonight so I ended up spending more on beer. As things were winding down, and I was getting ready to leave I mentioned to Bud that I would ship him a Seelie CD with Skye Boat song on it. He seemed shocked. “Really? Thanks! Hey you wanna do it again now? I love that song!” I reluctantly agreed. Thankfully by this time the bar was all but empty except for the staff, and one or to local regulars, and Karla from WI. As Bud and I started the song I heard a “pssssssst” from the back and glanced back and the waitress was in the back dragging the kitchen staff out to join her in the “audience”. Karla joined me on the last two choruses (I handed off my PDA with the lyrics, as they have finally stuck in my head) When we finished we got applause form the regulars, and the staff. Way to much fun! We stood and talked to Bud for a while discussing all sorts of things, and came up with a while list of songs he wants to hear and learn. He thanked us again for all the fun this week (He’s going to AZ tomorrow with his new wife of ten days to visit his mother) and said something like, “You guys really made this a great week for me, there were some pretty bad crowds this week, but I always had one or two of you to play around with and really can’t thank you enough.”

One thing is for certain, I will be saving up money and coming back up here as this place is just incredible.

Well, its a really good thing I sat down and copied the full lyrics to Skye boat song to my phone. It’s an even better thing that while out walking the grounds today I sang it to myself a couple dozen times… Tonight While at the pub, in walked a Scotsman in full dress kilt. A few moments later in walked his Mother, she was accompanied by another kilted man closer to her age. They were then followed by another group all with heavy Scottish accents. During his next break, Bud pulled out a paper with a list of songs on it, turned to the guy next to me and I and said, “Heres all the Scottish songs I know, do you guys know any of them?” I scanned the list, and the only one I really had any clue on was of course Skye Boat. “Ok, good!” He then started to hum a few notes and I sang him the chorus and the 1st verse. “GREAT! How do you know that melody, I’ve NEVER met anyone else who knew that melody?!?!?!” I responded “A band named Seelie Court, check them out at seelie-court.com, their CD’s are on CD Baby as well.” He responded, “ok great, think you can do it?” I responded, “I’ll try but no guarantees that I’m not going to cause an international incident.”

He started his next set, and then after the 3 or 4th song he turned around and said to me “Ok, we have to do Skye Boat now! You want the mic?” “uhhhh…” At that the guy next to me, Steve, said “Definitely, he’s great, give him the mic!” So, Steve took the mic and acted as a mic stand, and before I knew it I was singing to a barroom full of people. I was quite nervous to say the least… I felt my voice crackle a few times on the 1st verse but managed to force myself to relax for the rest. When I finished I got a huge applause from the group of Scottsmen, and the rest of the bar. Bud thanked me, then introduced me to the whole place. Then Steve asked me, “So did you see them?” “No… I didn’t see ANYTHING” “They were singing along, and enjoying it at least the mother and the older guy.” Later the younger guy commented that he had no idea what the lyrics to it were but that his mom was really happy.

Good god, did I just actually sing in front of an audience?

Pardon me while I go pass out from terror now.

[Edit:

One other fun thing,  The manager, Dave, recognized me tonight.  "Welcome back!" He then took me right in ahead of the 10 or so other people waiting in the lobby.  ]

Todays accomplishments around the house include the following:

1. Fixed the light in the back room downstairs.
2. Put house numbers back on the house
3. Cleaned up one of the piles of stuff in the living room