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By Mark D, October 6, 2012 2:12 am

The Masquerade Ball in 2006, a Markland Event run by the Order of the Lost Boys

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By Mark D, July 31, 2012 7:37 pm

[This is for a friend of mine, I believe this is a press release he put out that I'm reposting. If it's an actual news story from somewhere, my apologies.]

Eagle Scout Sean Vannoy of troop 1 Sellersville is an Aspirant, Registered member of team USA battle of the nations over the next few months Sean will travel the country competing for one of 42 spots on the team of Americans that will travel to Europe in the spring. Members of the team are only allowed to wear the eagle of America once they have been to an international competition as part team USA.

European nations have centuries of glorious medieval history in which their best armoured Knights raised their swords to take the field of combat against those from other nations in noble tournaments for the honor of their homeland – but as a younger country, the United States lacks the history for such a tradition of glorious armoured tournament.

The time has finally come for the USA to have its chance to rewrite history and take its rightful place amid the tales of armoured national warriors earning great victories against competing Knights from foreign lands.
A national team from the United States will join national teams comprising the most professional and experienced medieval swordfighters from across Europe in a full-contact contest of arms, just like the Knights of old. Teams from the Ukraine, Russia, Poland, Belarus, Quebec, Germany, Italy, and the United States will engage in single combat, small unit engagements, and mass combat to determine which nation will prove victorious at the end of nearly a week of competition.

Combining the patriotism and team spirit generated by the Olympics and World Cup, with the full-contact excitement of Ultimate Fighting and MMA – all while wrapped in the romance and drama of Renaissance Faires and Medieval Times, the Batle of the Nations matches top competitors from national teams across the globe competing against each other in all-out Chivalric combat in authentic full medieval armour. Steel swords clash against wooden shields. Giant poleaxes crash down upon metal helms. Victorious national teams celebrate hard-won victories against those they just vanquished on the field of battle.

Even as they fiercely compete on the field of battle, the national teams come together as brothers-in-arms off the field – engaging in a range of medieval cultural activities, arts, and crafts as they live and work together in an authentic re-enactment of a medieval festival.

The newly-formed TeamUSA comprises over thirty of the most renowned swordfighters from decades of competition across the United States, all of whom will take the field to fight for the American glory and honor.

Experiencing exponentially growing interest throughout Eastern and Western Europe, including a new television series airing on Russian television, the Battle of the Nations sits at the cusp of consumer interest in national sports teams, full-contact “mixed” martial arts, and the dramatic rise in interest in medieval re-enactment as evidenced by the spate of recent and forthcoming major motion pictures.

TeamUSA is actively seeking sponsors and media partners to help make their quest to cross the Atlantic and represented the United States at the Battle of the Nations a reality – and to bring this uniquely educational and entertaining sporting event to the North American audience.

To help Sean Vannoy with travel expenses go to http://igg.me/p/166341?a=842712 or for more information about the team, sponsorship and media opportunities, and how to make a donation to make TeamUSA’s involvement possible is available at www.USAknights.org.

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By Mark D, December 5, 2011 6:30 pm

Two Words: Don’t Bother.

Seriously, do not waste your money. Or at the very least wait until it’s in the bargain bin. It’s sad because the original Sims game was one of my favorites, but as I’ve played the games since I’ve never enjoyed them. Even though I did have complaints with the first game (no days off, having to make friends to advance in your job) at least it felt like there was a challenge. This doesn’t even feel like a challenge, and it could be called Medieval Home Decorator Pro.

So you get your kingdom and your first hero sim, the king. That’s the first problem. You can’t play as just anyone, you have to play as hero sims. So you can’t be a peasant and just lazy around working the field and fixing up your crummy place. In case you didn’t realize it immediately, it also means that you can’t improve or work on any of the buildings in your kingdom. Oh you can change around the furnishings if you want, if your using the correct sim for that building of course.

I should also mention that to start playing as a sim, you have to choose a quest. So you can’t just take your sim and do random stuff to level up (something else that’s pretty useless in the game) or to improve your kingdom. At the end of each quest, depending on how well you do, you get to add a new building to your realm. Most of them allow you to recruit a new hero sim (Tavern gets you a Bard, Church gets you a preacher, etc…) although some of them just improve your kingdom.

Since I mentioned the quests, I think they are the easiest challenge I have ever faced in a game. I used to play a game in which you could click Quest Help and you would walk towards where you needed to go. But this game takes it one step further in that they put icons over where you need to go that you can always see on your screen no matter where you are.  Need to go to the next step of the quest? Click the bubble and select the correct quest action and your off.

Also love how they didn’t include horses in the game, which I’m sure means there will be an expansion pack somewhere including them. It’s sort of ridiculous that you have to walk EVERYWHERE no matter who you are. Yes, I do realize that there is the fast forward button, but walking takes up precious time which you could theoretically be doing something more important. Not that I have found that more important thing.

Sure you can write laws and issue edicts as the King, even hear petitions. But none of them do anything important. Or at least make changes that are noticeable when you walk around. On the bright side you can kill Sims by throwing them to the Pit Beast. You can also send them to the stocks, which allows other Sims to throw eggs and fruit at them. Unfortunately they don’t revert to the Medieval reason stocks were so popular (figure it out for yourself).

The game is nothing more then a time sink without at least the joy of farming virtual fruit that Farmville gives you. There’s also almost no balancing of the status bars which at least was fun when you filled them all the way. Now you just get energy and hunger. Buffs simply give you a better chance of success in your interactions. Unfortunately interactions are so easy that you rarely need to get above what the game considers 50/50 for the interaction to be a success. I did countless interactions and only failed one that was on 50/50, yet I also failed one that was a sure thing. Go figure.

There’s so much wasted potential here, that your probably better off playing Sims 2 and just creating a Medieval themed neighborhood. I don’t think this is a really hard idea EA, give me the toys and let me play with them. Don’t hold my hand every step of the way and make me put the round peg in the round hole. Let me actually find my own multiple ways of dealing with things. If I want to be an evil bastard, allow me to make ridiculous laws and edicts.  I don’t want to just randomly throw people to the pit beast. I want to throw them to the beast because they broke an inconsequential law.

For that matter I don’t want your pre-designed buildings. I want my chapel to look like the entry gates to hell. I want my castle to just be a throne on top of a huge pile of skulls. I want my smithy to be chained to the wall in a cave, forced to continually work 24/7 smelting iron ore and preparing my death machine. Or maybe I’d like to be a tavern keeper who shanghais drunks? Or design a tavern ala From Death To Dawn.

Whatever I might have been dreaming, Sims Medieval is not it and will not let me do it. More then likely whatever you thought it might be isn’t it either. Pick it up in a bargain bin for 10 bucks sometime next year and you might get 10-20 hours out of the game before it becomes too repetitive.

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By Mark D, February 8, 2010 5:52 am

These are mostly from events in which I didn’t have the Camera, can’t remember the event or only took a few pics.

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By admin, November 28, 2009 9:15 am

Pulled this out of my archives, might do some more of these from time to time.

Unknown War 2005

August 28th Weekend

Gotta love War. Unfortunately I had the bad luck to get somewhat injured during the first battle. I don’t really remember if I had fought Lost Boy Adam before. But he is insane. He fought off me and someone else, while one of us was in front of him and one of us were behind him. Of course I had managed to run backwards full steam into the steps on the side of the castle. Follow that with getting nailed in the elbow with a full speed long sword swing. The oddly shaped bruise (maybe due to pads?) is blood red right now. Oh well. The war was a ton of fun though. I think I did the eliminate the whole opposing side with deaths from  behind about four  times. There really is no easier way to get the other sides army wanting to kill   you really badly.

As the group we did pretty good too. Some of the guys were on fire with their spears. I had a tendency to keep whichever was with me from getting killed, or to be a human guinea pig, get killed and open up the other sides spear man.  Rob finally figured out that trying to fight off 5 people at once is a bad  idea if its a res battle. Unfortunately by the end of the day Gerade was  out of action with a slight  injuries.

I also got paid one of the biggest compliments ever after the war. Angus said to me that I’m one of the fastest pole arms out there, and that I’ve definitely improved. I said I gotta be that fast because I seem to end up fighting Muscles a lot on the flank. It was definitely sweet.

Afterwards, Gerade and I went out to the good pizzeria in the area. Yes, it is scary that Gerade knows which pizzerias suck in the area. Where I proceeded to be master of the awkward comment from left field. Some of my favorites were:

“You know what? Yahoo has too many guys wishing they were Japanese schoolgirls with dicks”

*really stupid looking hick enters the pizza place* “at least I’m no longer the dumbest person here”

*whigga enters the pizzeria, looking really, really whigged out. Including black headband* “at least I’m not the oddest dressed person here” (I was in my medieval stuff)

*I look at the board of local business cards and see a card for “Ray’s Crab Shack” and I follow up with this line, very loudly* “What the hell am I doing here when I can be at Ray’s Crab Shack!”

Trust me, there were more, a lot more. But unfortunately I can’t remember half of the crazy stuff I said. I also remember saying that by some point I had probably pissed off the cooks (I talk loud, very loud) that my Stromboli was going to have hair, piss and dirt in it. There was also a very unfortunate mother and young daughter attempting to eat dinner directly behind me. Sometimes people just come into the line of fire.

At one point or another Gerade was  either offended by something I said or  laughing so hard he was crying. On the ride home I was torturing Gerade, and when I finally stopped for  five minutes I killed the silence with this line “I wonder why no one ever calls me to hang out with them?” which was followed with more laughter