Bellscasting

Bells today had two moments which were _really_ good.

The part within these bold tags is the technical part where I use a lot of unexplained jargon

The first was getting to ring Annabel's London again, a method I have only rung once, six months ago. We had one false start (another ringer hadn't studied and needed to) but when we actually set to it, we finished and Laura said she wanted to give stickers to the whole band. It was good! I knew it so sharp! Like, it's more attention paid than Cambridge, but I definitely know this one, and because I learn surprise by place bells, I will definitely be able to ring this in QPs or whatever, once we get calls.

Several months ago, Leland asked me what I'd like for my first peal¹ and I was talking with Austin about it and I think I really do want mixed surprise minor. One extent each of seven different methods --throw plain bob in there, and I only need to learn six of them. Austin even obligingly wrote all over my whiteboard the different families, and told me which ones would be best although I've forgotten the specifics and need to ask him again.

At any rate, being solid on Annabel's gets me to 4/6 surprise minor methods². So eventually I learn those other two and then get the team together (possibly out at Smith?) and ring the bells for three hours hell yes.

Thus ends the really really jargony bit and now we return to normal levels of jargon

The second was getting to do witchcraft in the tower. I don't really know how else to describe the moment, it felt like ritual and spellcasting in all the best ways.

Elishka has been learning various things, but has not yet gotten a chance to lead. So we're set up for rounds on eight, with them leading, and Austin suggests that we come in one at a time, as an easier form of practice for them. Which first off, worked _awesome_ from a pedagogical standpoint, 'Lishka was able to adjust to the different number of bells after quite well, and it gave really good practice in leading.

But just...from an everything else standpoint. 1. 1. 1. 12. 12. 12. 123. 123. 1234. 1234. 12345...new bells coming in every few strokes, building up to 12345678. And me on the tenor, last to arrive and then of *course* after a few dozen strokes I stood and quietly said to Josh on the 7 to stand when he was ready, and the sound dwindled back out to just Elishka alone and it was _so good_.

I don't know that anyone else felt like it was witchery, but it was such a nice reminder that sometimes my hobbies have magic in them, that sometimes the threads of beauty and humanity that I crave are everywhere around me. We created it together --and that's also unusual, I don't cast in public-- and we brought the sound and the space and the physicality and the music together and it was just...entirely correct. What a fucking staggeringly cool moment!

Anyways, it made up for me completely falling apart at Grandsire fifteen minutes later. Speaking of which, I have a quarterpeal tomorrow, so it's time to stop dozing on the couch and sleep in a real bed for a few hours before that. Ta!

~Sor
MOOP!

1: The ~specifications~ around what make a peal are so funny to me, because I already had my first peal attempt, but because we only rang like 4980 changes instead of 5040, it doesn't count. And like sure, fine, you gotta reach the magic number but I have deffo successfully proof-of-concepted the idea that I can ring for three hours straight.

2: It feels like cheating to say Cambridge *and* Primrose, but they are different! Also Beverly, for those keeping track at home.

(no subject)

Today we attempted a quarterpeal of Grandsire triples!

Attempted because alas, we lost it about a lead before the end, but gosh, it was a quite jolly time until then, especially considering that yesterday when we practiced grandsire trips it did...not go well for me. It took *three* tried for me to start, which is...auspicious. Given that yesterday I was starting on the four, which means I would immediately do the 4-5 down-dodge, I told Danielle (our conductor) I thought it was _very_ funny that she put me on the 5 today, who not even once got to make that particular dodge. Calls interrupted it every single time --I was apparently an observation bell, which meant I had a very predictable path to run through.

Having a path that regularly repeated was not at all a problem for me --Grandsire is by _far_ the weakest of the methods I supposedly know. Which is very funny, because it's probably the second easiest method one learns, but I skipped and went to Stedman first and never recovered. I did just doublecheck though, and it looks like I have _never_ been in a successful quarter of Grandsire, not even as the tenor behind or the treble. That is...actually hilarious, and a little part of me wants to quietly not mention it to anyone and see how long I can just quarter more complicated things.

(I'd say shh, keep the secret, but there are definitely ringers on here, and at least one of them might have an opinion on whether or not I should quarter Grandsire before I peal a passel of surprise minor.)

Like I said though, a very jolly time up until it wasn't. And given that we got through so much of it, I did make some progress learning the place bells and whatnot. So that was quite fun!

After bells, the polycool got together to celebrate Bee's birthday party. Three of us were in the quarter attempt, and we all trundled off to Todd's house to bake cake, play games, and generally laugh a lot and make merry. Austin and Todd made lemon cake which was _very good_, and Todd also threw together a dinner. Phoebe and I figured out the rules to a weird little set theory game from the late '60s that Todd acquired from somewhere, and then the four of us played a much better game of LetterJam --where we (shockingly!) all got our correct words!

Post LetterJam we ate dinner, then played some absolutely horrible rounds of hanabi, then some much better rounds of Gucamelee, a co-op video game where you play a buncha luchadores off to fight skeletons and try to rescue El Presidente's daughter. Oh, and there was a bit of making Todd work on Inscryption progress as well (reminding me that I should work on my own progress with the game sometime).

Now Austin and I are home and going to sleep and he has to work in the morning and I do not, nyah nyah. I am _very_ happy about this. Theoretically tomorrow was supposed to be a solid Do Nothing day, but my friend Scoop needs body doubling help, so I'm probably gonna do some of that for him and maybe work on cleaning up my utter disaster bedroom. I could do laundry??? Or file papers??? Or generally make the space not a horrible hoarders nightmare and instead into a space where real people can live and move around again?

(the end of the school year has been...bad for my brainspace and getting anything else done).

Anywho, I hope you are happy and good. Happy summer!

~Sor
MOOP!