Large chunks of free time have become somewhat scarce for me--for reasons both circumstantial as well as self-inflicted. This evening was not one of those times, which opened up the "To Do" list: Line-items such as set up a test server and hook it into the internet via DynDNS, upgrade the laptop to Maverick Meercat, Set up remote host access for MySQL databases, or even just learn my way around MySQL Workbench.
So, naturally, I've been working out how "Elizabethan" bows are tied (keeping both decorative aiglettes facing front), so I can finally attach the early 16th century "puff and slash" sleeves to the early 16th century Venetian dress that I finished something like mumble-fourteen-mumble years ago. Which means sitting with two strips bias tape pinned to the couch upholstery, following the directions from a printed-out web page, going through the steps multiple times, paying strict attention to how each strip "wants" to face at various steps.
This would have been something that pretty much everybody in Western Europe would have known, for at least a century. Now it's esoterica, albeit the kind that sets the hard-core re-enactor/costumer apart from the RenFest Refugee crowd. No doubt four and five hundred years from now, some form of programming will still be practiced. Were I to be thawed from my cryogenic tube and rebooted into that time, I would be astounded by many things. But one of them would not be finding clubs devoted to the "ancient" rudimentaries of the craft--with all the bickering over interpretations of primary sources, one-upsmanship, snobberies, know-it-all-ers and posers one can expect. Oddly--or maybe not--that's almost a comforting thought.
