Ten Things I Have Done That You Probably Haven't

[jducoeur]

Snarfed from alexx_kay.

1. Dancemastered a thousand-person (well, something like that) Ball.
2. Represented a vicious dictatorship in the Model United Nations.
3. Walked down the middle of Pennsylvania Avenue in DC for an hour.
4. Been saved from arrest by a two-year-old.
5. Played handball with a broken arm. (Literally *with* it -- the cast made a fine bat.)
6. Invented a guild. (Okay, done it twice -- I can think of a couple of people on my flist who've done it once.)
7. Attempted to keep a starving crowd entertained at an SCA event where dinner was very, very late.
8. Spilled stew all over a Countess.
9. Had stew spilled all over me by a Count.
10. Completely flipped a catamaran. (With the mast sticking straight into the mud of the lake.)

Comments

[oakleaf-mirror.livejournal.com]

7. Attempted to keep a starving crowd entertained at an SCA event where dinner was very, very late.

A lot of us from Birka I worked at that.

[ian-gunn.livejournal.com]

Close call on #2. I was involved with the model UN for two years in college. The first year we were Sri Lanka and I was our rep to the IAEA. The second year we were Iraq. I helped out with a lot of planning and research but did not end up going to the event itself. There was a budget cut at the school and we almost did not go at all till a Saudi student who was involved got his father to foot the bill for everyone. There were about 3 times the number of people involved as slots to go. I could have gone but I got into logger heads with the Saudi student, he was being a little prick trying to have his way with every decision, so I backed out. Sometime art imitates life far to closely

[mindways]

Nope, haven't done any of those. :)

...elucidation on the circumstances of #4?

And were #8 and #9 related? ;)

[jducoeur]

...elucidation on the circumstances of #4?

Ask me in person sometime. It's a fun (and long) story, but some subjects are beyond what even I will talk about in an archived public format like this. Suffice it to say, my 19th birthday was in almost every sense the longest day of my life.

And were #8 and #9 related? ;)

Actually, not in the slightest. Indeed, #9 didn't occur to me until after writing #8.

#8 was when I was both autocratting and cooking for the Carolingian 20th Anniversary Event, one of the dumbest things I've ever done. By the time the feast was completely ready, I was almost dead on my feet. I came wearily wandering out of the kitchen holding my bowl of stew, heading for my seat, tripped and spilled the entire bowl on Countess Tamara. (The fact that this is the lady affectionately known as "Countess Barbie" due to her fondness for fine clothes didn't help any.)

#9 was at a 12th Night down in Bridge. Sebastian was serving dinner to our table, and hamming it up in the distinctive Sebastian style: specifically, he was picking up the chickens on our platter and making them dance. Unfortunately, he wasn't paying too much attention to the orientation of said platter, which was directly above my head. I didn't even realize anything was wrong until I spotted the horrified look of the person across the table (I *think* it was isisofcool, but memory fades), at which point I realized that my hair was suddenly sopping wet, and dripping down onto my collar...

[rufinia.livejournal.com]

I've been two. I was Yugoslavia when it was mean, as opposed to a mess.

[jducoeur]

Cool! I honestly didn't think anyone was going to get that one. IIRC, I was Uganda, and spent the entire weekend explaining to everyone that we were actually an upstanding democracy, fair and kind to all good people...

[rufinia.livejournal.com]

::grins:: I was Yugoslavia my first year, my second year my delegation was Botswana, because they had a seat on the Security COuncil. Good times, that. The 2 am emergency meeting of the SC wasn't that great... our chairperson came in clutching ehr teddy bear, and I have no idea what we possibly could have accomplished- the real security council at least gets coffee when they've been woken up.

[hfcougar.livejournal.com]

Wait, you did Model UN? Airport Hilton and all? What years?

Agh!

[rufinia.livejournal.com]

96 and 97.

[hfcougar.livejournal.com]

Ah. I graduated high school in 1995.

No, I never did YIG, Model Assembly, or anything but UN. I don't remember why.

[rufinia.livejournal.com]

Did yuou do YIG, too?

me three!

[alethea-eastrid.livejournal.com]

Well, it wasn't actually MUN, but I did the Tufts EPIIC Inquiry program twice while in High School (good for the resume, dontchaknow), and the first year, on the Balkans, we got handed Serbia. The final project weekend was handled in real time, and I Really Wanted to throw up my hands and go home when good ol' Slobodan (sp?)--yeah, the real one--managed to do something Spectacularly Stupid on Saturday that made the news...

[corwyn-ap.livejournal.com]

7. Yup.

10. Close. Most of my family has flipped the catamaran. I have submarined it, but never quite flipped. Actually I take pride in that...

[liamstliam.livejournal.com]

But you've never vomited on a princess' tent.

No, wait, that's someone else.

[doubleplus.livejournal.com]

Gotcha on #3, several times, though it was only for an hour because I was in a protest with tens of thousands of people, so it moved pretty slowly. However, I live in the DC area, which makes it a lot easier for me.

[jducoeur]

Ah -- a protest hadn't occurred to me. My experience was during the aforementioned Model UN session -- DC got six inches of snow, and was utterly paralyzed. So a bunch of us went wandering out looking for dinner, and were completely weirded out at the sight of a major city shut down by an amount of snow that *might* have delayed school opening at home...

[metageek.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I lived one winter in the DC area; they have no clue how to cope with snow. The first snow that year was, oh, maybe about 3-4". It was on a Saturday; by Monday, it was all slush...and it still slowed down traffic by about 50%.

[cvirtue.livejournal.com]

#3 - did this for a protest march, I think, if it's the street I'm thinking of; I'm a little unclear on streets in DC.
#7 - I helped out at Dana's when he fed people who gave up around 10pm or whenever it was. Good for you for entertaining!
#10 - Did, I think, a Sunfish, but on purpose at sailing school so we could learn how to jump on the daggerboard to get it back up again. So that doesn't really count.

Why'd you almost get arrested?

[jducoeur]

Good for you for entertaining!

Someone (I don't recall who) begged me and Patri to run dancing. It was actually the worst dancemastering challenge I've ever faced, even worse than running the Ball at Pennsic -- the acoustics in that hall were *astoundingly* bad. Fortunately, we eventually found a guy with a pipe and drum who was able to make enough noise for the dancing...

So that doesn't really count.

Also, a Sunfish is *much* easier to flip than a cat. That I managed to do a few times. Fortunately, it's also much easier to right a Sunfish...

Why'd you almost get arrested?

See my response to jikharra, above -- it's not a story for the public network. This was the infamous Trip to Quebec story that occurred during our freshman year, which you've probably heard at least once or twice...

[cvirtue.livejournal.com]

I think I've heard it, but the details escape me, so I'll ask you some time, when it seems like a good time.

[oakleaf-mirror.livejournal.com]

Fortunately, it's also much easier to right a Sunfish...

The line we use in trimarans as a cautionary reminder is "Remember, all floats level with the mast pointing straight at the sky is the second most stable configuration for the boat." (The most stable being all floats level with the mast pointing at the ocean floor.)

[alexx-kay.livejournal.com]

Quebec! Aha! I *do* know that story! Well, I've heard it anyways. Probably don't remember enough detail to recount it well...

[cellio]

Did #9 follow quickly after #8?

[jducoeur]

See my reply to jikharra -- completely unrelated incidents...

[vonstrassburg.livejournal.com]

Heh. My yiddish dictionary explains the difference between a schlemiel and a shlimazl as: "a schlemiel is someone who spills a bowl of hot soup, all over a shlimazl". Which makes you a ... mmm ...

[sun-in-splendor.livejournal.com]

Gotcha on a couple.

1. Not quite a thousand, but DM'ed a 300+ Country Dance Ball once, and a 400+ open workshop on Renaissance dance at the Spanish Ballroom

2. Sort of. Represented the loan socialist member of the Manitoba Parliament. Even got to sit in his seat in the Legislature Building.
3. Pennsylvania Avenue is too easy. Been in a couple of marches, although usually not for a whole hour.
Have stood in the middle many times, since they close it for it or festivals. Was helping with a Turkish festival last September and I was there from 8 to 6
I've ridden my bike down the middle of Pennsylvania Avenue in rush hour traffic. Right down the double line in the middle, waiting for an opening to make a left turn.

5. Almost as good. Once we were performing at the Shakespeare's Birthday celebration on the lawn in front of the Folger Library, I stepped on a sprinkler head, broke my foot, but finished that dance and the next two to close out the set. Then my dancers took me to GW Hospital for treatment and I was on crutches for four weeks.

[dagonell.livejournal.com]

7. Attempted to keep a starving crowd entertained at an SCA event where dinner was very, very late.

*Ahem!* Most senior bards can lay claim to this, including me. Actually, that was how I realized people perceive me as a senior bard. The autocrat had to get past the Baronial Bard to ask me to perform on the fly.

9. Had stew spilled all over me by a Count.

Ironic that it should have Sebastian. When he and Cyrillian were on the throne (uh, it is *that* Sebastian, yes?) I performed a verse so funny that both of them doubled over in laughter and went face first into the soup bowls. A perfect double. Of course, it probably didn't help that I pumped my fist and said "Yes!" before continuing with the next verse! :D
-- Dagonell

[jducoeur]

Yes, *definitely* that Sebastian...

[adespota.livejournal.com]

Wow, Model UN, that certainly brings back some memories. I was Somalia, which, if you classify it as anything other than anarchic, would also be a vicious dictatorship (but with many dictators).

[hfcougar.livejournal.com]

I represented Italy, the United States, Brazil, and Japan in my four years of Model UN. It's up to you whether the US counts as a vicious dictatorship. ;) I don't know why I didn't keep doing Model UN in college, since I loved it in high school.

Not even close on the other ones.