Wednesday night was awesome. I walked over to Schenley Park to meet up with Friar, Geoff and Andrea and watch Iron Man, which was being shown outdoors on a big screen. After the movie we went out and got some margaritas, and then went to Dave and Andy's (the ice cream shop where Geoff and Andrea work) and made ourselves sundaes. I was literally a kid in a candy shop, and it was everything that I had hoped for and more. Thursday, after a lazy day, we drove up to Hastings with Pants. On Friday I went into the city with Friar, and saw Josh and Eric, which was very pleasant. That evening, before heading up to Boston, we had dinner with my parents and Nicky and Kaari, which was also wonderful.
Saturday morning, we awoke early and headed out to Devens, MA. The first game of the day was our toughest, but we ended up coming out on top, beating Wiretap 16-14. After that, the rest of the day was a breeze. We beat DoG handily (I had a layout d and went upline for a score) and demolished Colt. This set us up for a cross over game with PoNY, we went down 4-1 before games were postponed till Sunday because of lightning. Sunday morning, after a night of lazing around and watching a truly awful movie (about zombies crashing a high school prom) we came back out and beat PoNY. I can't say I played much, but it was so cool to be on a team that could win a game against a team that had made nationals only last year, not to mention a team that I thought was way out of my league. Afterwards, we played GOAT and lost, but just the fact that we played GOAT was so enough to make me happy. Our last game of the day was a loss against Sons of Liberty, a game that we should've won. I recognized many of the SoL players, and it seemed to me that of all the clubs we had played that weekend, SoL was probably the one most closely matched to my skill level. Afterwards, we stayed to watch a few points of the GOAT-Ironside final, and then journeyed home, arriving at 2:30 am. It was a fantastic weekend.
In the midst of all this running around, I've found time to start watching yet another TV show: the BBC's most recent take on the Arthurian legend, called 'Merlin.' What has struck me about this show is the way in which it plays on the power of names. Everyone watching the show presumably knows what becomes of Arthur, Guinevere, Merlin, Morgana and Mordred. What 'Merlin' does is follow these characters from their beginnings. Arthur is obviously a prince, but outside of that things are different. Merlin is Arthur's manservant, and must hide his gift for magic, Morgana is Uther's ward, and Guinevere is her servant. Mordred is a random child who Arthur, Merlin, Guinevere and Morgana save in one episode. The way that the show utilizes dramatic irony through the audience's knowledge of the Arthurian knowledge started me thinking on the power of names. In the modern era, names have lost much of their power, but it seems to me that names have always been potent, if only because of the knowledge that they impart. Names contain information about lineage, ethnicity and profession. My favorite example is one of my ancestor's names: Fleischacker (i.e. Flesh-hacker). In former times, when social mobility was not as easy, someone named Fleischacker was probably a [German] butcher. At any rate, I don't have much more to say on the subject, except that names are pretty cool.
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