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dime_novel_heroA few months back, I met some of the Lake Erie Pirates at Steel City Con. I had wanted to get involved with some sort of pirate group for quite some time, as far back as 1998 when I attended my first WorldCon in Baltimore and met some pirates there. Even though Pittsburgh is technically an "inland port," and the baseball team are the Pirates, there is no actually piratical history, in the traditional sense, and thus no pirate groups. Lake Erie has them, though.
They have some fairly strict membership rules, however. Not just anyone can join and they have a vetting process that involves either attending three events as a lackey taking pictures and handing out flyers or having an intensive job interview. It makes sense that in dealing with the public at conventions and charity events thry don't want to associate with people who would embarass them. With five years at the Carnegie Science Center and a decade as a Klingon, I'm not concerned about meeting their criteria but living 100 miles away makes that a little more time consuming.
But this weekend they were down for the Walk for Autism at Heinz Field so I would have an opportunity to be a hanger on.
I was up at 5am, did some stuff on the computer (such as checking my email, webcomics, blogs and scanning what I thought was a missing page for my daughter's homework), drove into Squirrel Hill and then rode my bike the rest of the way into town to meet them in the parking lot at 7am.
The event went pretty much the way they typically went when I was doing it in Klingon. Lots of walking around. Acting silly. Having your picture taken. I don't think I had much opportunity to make any sort of impression. Taking pictures and handing out flyers is not a lot of public interraction. I'd do much better with a costume.
After six hours of that, I burned a CD of all the pictures I'd taken and headed out for the Parsec meeting in Squirrel Hill. The pirates were having a picnic at Captain Teague's place in Murrysville but I had committments after the meeting. Unfortunately, that didn't turn out because a number of people didn't show up for the gaming session and those of us that were there spent most of the time bull shitting and watching John Stewart on YouTube.
It was a very long day, not getting back home and to bed until 1am. I did spend many hours out in the sun and the crowd but I don't think that was the reason I've had a headache all day and blew off riding my bike out to Connellsville and back like I really should have to be prepared for my Erie Canal trip. I'll definately need to get out next weekend. And when the canal trip comes along, maybe I'll be able to arrange to stop in Erie on the way back to meet with the crew and have my interview.
They have some fairly strict membership rules, however. Not just anyone can join and they have a vetting process that involves either attending three events as a lackey taking pictures and handing out flyers or having an intensive job interview. It makes sense that in dealing with the public at conventions and charity events thry don't want to associate with people who would embarass them. With five years at the Carnegie Science Center and a decade as a Klingon, I'm not concerned about meeting their criteria but living 100 miles away makes that a little more time consuming.
But this weekend they were down for the Walk for Autism at Heinz Field so I would have an opportunity to be a hanger on.
I was up at 5am, did some stuff on the computer (such as checking my email, webcomics, blogs and scanning what I thought was a missing page for my daughter's homework), drove into Squirrel Hill and then rode my bike the rest of the way into town to meet them in the parking lot at 7am.
The event went pretty much the way they typically went when I was doing it in Klingon. Lots of walking around. Acting silly. Having your picture taken. I don't think I had much opportunity to make any sort of impression. Taking pictures and handing out flyers is not a lot of public interraction. I'd do much better with a costume.
After six hours of that, I burned a CD of all the pictures I'd taken and headed out for the Parsec meeting in Squirrel Hill. The pirates were having a picnic at Captain Teague's place in Murrysville but I had committments after the meeting. Unfortunately, that didn't turn out because a number of people didn't show up for the gaming session and those of us that were there spent most of the time bull shitting and watching John Stewart on YouTube.
It was a very long day, not getting back home and to bed until 1am. I did spend many hours out in the sun and the crowd but I don't think that was the reason I've had a headache all day and blew off riding my bike out to Connellsville and back like I really should have to be prepared for my Erie Canal trip. I'll definately need to get out next weekend. And when the canal trip comes along, maybe I'll be able to arrange to stop in Erie on the way back to meet with the crew and have my interview.
