Duchess

So far I have 8 of you signed up.

If you haven't received a message from me saying you are officially signed up...you aren't.

Now if that bothers you, if you don't like being left out of the fun and frolic that is the secret gift exchange, you should act now!

Send me a pm including your name and address!

You never know what delights you will find in your mail box! Will it be a handmade card? A box of coco? A bawdy pirate statue? (ps. Whoever sent me that, it still comes out as the center piece for Thanksgiving every year much to the chagrin of my grandmother!)

Mystery! Surprise! Scandal! It could all be yours by participating in the Pirate's Secret Gift Exchange!

Thanks Quartermaster. I've been busy busy lately! I'll get confirmations out to folks who have signed up already on Wednesday. Anyone else, now is the time!

It's time for the Secret Gift Exchange! Those of you who've been around know we've done this for the last several years with a reasonable amount of success and a few of us/you were looking forward to it again this year. If you're not looking forward to it, you can move along, or you can blame your compatriots who are. Or you can just blame me, I like this event.

So here's how it’s going to work:

Who is eligible:

• Any current member of the Pub is eligible. If you’ve only been around a few months, I’ll pair you with someone else in equal standing. The understanding being that this would put those newer members on equal footing, as both parties would be taking a risk with unknowns.
  

• Regardless of membership status, by signing up you solemnly agree that you will provide some sort of pleasant contact with your designated recipient. If you don't I'll be distinctly displeased with you and highly unlikely to allow participation in the future.
  

What you'll do:

• After the sign-up cut-off I will PM you the name and address of your Designated Recipient.
  

• Sometime in the near future you will put something in the mail, timed so as to arrive before December 25, for your Designated Recipient.
  

What you will send:

• Often these sorts of arrangements come with a dollar amount limit. I’m not convinced that is appropriate for some place like the Pub, and things have been pretty successful for the last several years without one. Please don't let this lack of specification make you uncomfortable. Also know that you're not buying our friendship, respect or any other sort of attention, so don't bother showing off. We'll just mock you. Things that people have done in the past: Holiday Cards, CD's, dice, a deck of cards, belt pouches, glass pens, etc.... Basically anything goes as long as it is kind and reasonably well intentioned. If this section is really stressing you out PM me, and we'll come up with something or I'll give you quantitative limits to make you feel better.
  
• The most successful gifts are often hand crafted.
  

How to sign up:

• Send me a PM with your name (or something the post office will recognize as a name capable of receiving pacakages) and an address.
  
• If you would like to include a SHORT list of things you are interested in to help your Designated Giver, please feel free. Note that I said things you are interested in, not a shopping list. Please don’t sign up if you simply expect to check one more thing off your “I want” list. This list is by no means a requirement; in fact I think part of the fun in this is the mystery.
  

• Each interested party must contact me themselves, from their own account. I won't sign anyone up on someone else's say so. Simply expressing interest here. You must send me a PM with your name and address. This is a test.
  

• I MUST RECEIVE YOUR PM BY NOON CT ON FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 9th FOR YOU TO PARTICIPATE!
  

• I will then mix up all the entries and pair up everyone. I'll then send you a PM by November 16^th containing the name and address of your Designated Recipient.
  

• You will then find, craft, beg, or barter something for them and post it off to the supplied address. Please let me know when your package has shipped.
  

• After the Gift exchange is complete everyone should purge their PM's of sensitive identifying information (like names and addresses) and I will do the same.
  

• You're free to open your Gift whenever you get it (or to wait for some special day) and post here in great detail about it. But let’s have the exchange complete before we start identifying ourselves as "giver of ...."
  

If you've any questions please post here or send me a PM.

Thanks,

Duchess.

Well, the only remotely period stuff I've worked on lately has been the Ottoman Empire related stuff. Though I'm considering doing some Norse costuming for a Mead and Meat winter gala.

I was pretty much out of it when I joined the pub. I'd had enough of negativity, large festivals, bureaucracy and other people. My love of costumes, crafting and enjoyment of the pub has kept me trickling along.

"Beer!"

In my best impression of Rool from Willow.

Well, two for sure is good enough! Stand by for a new post for the new year in the next couple of weeks.

Most probably. :) Interest has been waning the last couple of years, but I'm down for giving it a go again if others want to do it.

Find a place that can sew leather, I'd probably try a shoe repair joint they'll be able to get into the glove, and have a patch put over it.

On one occasion out a voyage, a line got tangled around our prop. Though I don't quite recall why, I ended up having to free dive under the boat to cut it clear. I held the knife in my teeth, though not by the blade, but by the handle. It would take someone with remarkably even teeth to securely hold a flat piece of metal. Handles are generally slightly larger, rounder and made of something with a bit of give. All of which, in my case, were much more conducive to holding it securely, even when tired.

Glad you made it safely. :)

Happy Birthday!

Doomed!

If you're looking to order, you might also try joining up with a local high powered rocketry group. They often need 4f for their parachute deployment.

I didn't know that definition was strictly American. How novel!

I don't mind thread necromancy at all! It was just that it is usually Mission doing the resurrection. Now I'm all curious if they fixed the flag gaffe or not...

Thread necromancy at its finest and Mission no where to be found.....

I didn't know the exhibit was in Minnesota. I might have to go see it again!

It could be parabolic, we could also go to higher orders. Or make it dependent on the change in post rate using derivatives.

We could do that! We could set it up so that there is an optimal amount of posting per day that could figure into the calculation. We could weight the formula on various statistics. I like this idea!

Oh sure, first the post count, then our join date....

Actually I quite agree with ditching the post count. But definitely not the log in date.

I find I can't ignore this birthday greeting! While we've never met in person, it has been my pleasure to know you virtually for all these years!

Lovely!

Never let the word sewing make it seem more complicated than is necessary. More like tying. Just use the wire to attach the pin to what every you want.

I have a couple of old broaches I use for hat decorations. I wrap some fine wire around them and basically sew them on with the wire.

Allow me to set the stage by saying, I've been working my way through the Aubrey/Maturin series again.

This morning I was grading papers from my students regarding a project they'd done last week. A part of the project called for measuring the length of a ~6meter, somewhat flexible, PVC pipe with a long cloth tape measure. As scientists in training they were instructed to come up with an estimate of the error in their measurement and propagate that error through to future calculations.

One particular group had decided that 0.0001meters was a reasonable error. To which I replied "Far too small! A tenth of a milimeter, forsooth!"

I suspect they already think me insane. I have no idea how this will be received, though I did opt to not cross it out...