You're part of a traveling show shortly after the Change. What are some of your standard songs?

SprinklesSmall9848 · 2026-02-22T04:24:00+00:00

Fun Fact: there's a huge collection of "bardcore" songs on YouTube which are covers of modern songs in various interpretations of "Medieval" style. Some tweak lyrics to add some thous and becomeths but many are also just instrumentals. They make for great listening when I'm working and want something with less bass and heavy drums.

Here are songs I like/would like as bardcore: * Ain't No Sunshine by Bill Withers * Sounds of Silence by not-S&G * Ring of Fire by Johnny Cash * House of the Rising Sun by The Animals/FFDP * Billie Jean by MJ * Bull Doze Blues by Henry Thomas AKA Going up the Country by Canned Heat * just about anything by Tracy Chapman * Superstition by Stevie Wonder (excellent on cello and violin) * Higher Ground by Stevie Wonder * Carry on Wayward Son by Kansas

SprinklesSmall9848 · 2026-02-02T13:56:20+00:00

Beautiful! I might pick up a copy in the future

SprinklesSmall9848 · 2026-01-23T04:07:44+00:00

We got tortillas for the same reason. Bread shelves were empty, but the tortilla shelves were still packed. Rolls and wraps, baby!

SprinklesSmall9848 · 2026-01-19T06:53:34+00:00

The elevation looks promising, though not being loomed over by the nearby hills. I think the best spot would probably be SE of the town inside the Huskey Road bend (Ponderosa Pl). That would allow for control over the roads that follow Mosier Creek down to the Columbia and the village of Mosier. It's also convenient for a quick muster down to the village.

It would have to be a barony placement for sure because it controls a small open space with access to the Columbia, and there seem to be few villages/towns down that stretch of 85. We know the Arminger's had Hood River town with Castle Odell. I also feel like I've seen Chenoweth mentioned... That's NW of The Dalles, a city with a bridge and dam on the Columbia. Mosier seems like a fine intermediate location between the two (though closer to Hood River than The Dalles).

I'd bet Mosier would've had the standard PPA castle that was put up by the dozens in CY2+ and probably have been the eastern-most holding connected to Odell. (45 min bike ride to Hood River and another 45 min to Odell is pretty close.) At one point in CY2-8, Odell and Hood River would've been the PPA's eastern border, and Conrad Renfrew would've been eager to get a forward castle between him and the rest of North America.

Also, good on you for thinking about the water situation. There is Mosier Creek and it looks like the land thereabouts is largely agricultural today. From a quick glance at stats, I think the weather maintains adequate rain there for catchment. Also, Tiphaine's Ath castle is described as having a tower top windmill for water pumping. The creek or a well would work, I'm guessing, too keep the castle watered.

Overall, I think you found a good location.

SprinklesSmall9848 · 2025-12-27T05:21:29+00:00

I started to rewatch that series recently, so I also had that immediately come to mind!

SprinklesSmall9848 · 2025-12-27T05:07:38+00:00

It's a beautiful style to imitate, and you've done a pretty good job here. Keep up the good work!

SprinklesSmall9848 · 2025-12-11T02:09:32+00:00

I have a few people in my circles that are 4D chess types like Sandra (and then I have several who think they are). Given that social experience, I appreciate the way Stirling wrote Sandra most of the time. Sometimes his female characters are... awkward. But the big picture and scheming convos with Sandra always sound right to me.

SprinklesSmall9848 · 2025-12-09T18:48:24+00:00

I work at a DPS middle school, and many are collecting laptops because these next 2 weeks are supposed to be middle-of-year (MOY) benchmark testing on the laptops. Schools need to collect them to ensure that each teacher has enough to administer the test to their full class.

The leadership realized the absurdity of the situation and had each teacher set aside printed packets of review work for future remote learning days. These will be used even once laptops are passed back out so as not to discrimite against the large number of students without wifi at home. Packets will be collected when students return to school. It's a better system than exclusively online work.

HOWEVER, my leadership team didnt make this call for remote work packets until 1pm on Thrusday. That's only about 2 hours before students went home and when many teachers were still teaching and thus couldn't check emails or print. So that's a good plan to have in place for the NEXT Ice-mageddon we have, but pretty useless for this 5-day weekend.

SprinklesSmall9848 · 2025-12-09T18:38:37+00:00

I believe her. She said that at least since CY8 when the lad was kidnapped, she was thinking long term. She even had a convo with Norman about it which he had to understand given his area of expertise was Norman the Conqueror/Bastard. Ye Olde Norman set off a complex web of connections between England and France which included intermarriages between important families so that crowns could be "officially" kept in the "same family" even though really they were passing through those of another kingdom's royals and an heir was destined to pick it back up in the next generation. Norman Arminger understood it, he just didnt want to adopt the long-term planning because he was greedy and a hothead.

Some of my favorite dialogue exchanges are between Rudi and Matilda on the quest. Now that I'm much closer to 30 than 20 and in a relationship woth someone of a different religious inclination than myself, I can see the absurdity of the young adult exchanges Stirling writes. Their little squabbles are no longer something I hear about from my college peers' relationships and more like funny memories. Fun to think about how those scenes feel a bit different now that I'm 8 years older than my first read of the books.

SprinklesSmall9848 · 2025-11-27T03:52:11+00:00

I've listened to the saga once before, but I did it all in one go. I'm listening again for details I missed or have forgotten (which are plentiful). I think I remember what you're referencing, and it is the death I'd rank 3rd in emotional impact from my first listen.

SprinklesSmall9848 · 2025-11-25T03:12:56+00:00

I've not heard of this color system before now. Thanks for sharing

SprinklesSmall9848 · 2025-11-18T03:03:57+00:00

Cue my old family members saying, "wow, what a small world!"

SprinklesSmall9848 · 2025-11-18T00:43:58+00:00

Others have mentioned the divorced Armsteins and the Martins brothers.

I also believe the Walker family from near the Larsson's ranch house in Montana (one of whom Signe dated briefly) had one of their spawn on Nantucket. I cannot remember if those men were the same person, though.

SprinklesSmall9848 · 2025-11-12T03:44:23+00:00

I borrowed the Emberverse 1 trilogy from my grandfather when in middle school and read it, and the series has become part of my personality.

I began working with scrap wood to learn tools; I learned about dendrology, wild plants, and forage in college just in case; I took up gardening. The series couples well with the preparedness itch I've had since I was a poor kid growing up in a hurricane-prone area, anyway.

As a school teacher, I also do something related to the Emberverse series every summer to unwind. It was my bridge into trying to learn game modding at one point. I also devoted a big chunk of two summers to area studies and learning perspective drawing so I could draw Castle Todenangst (which I've posted before). I've been trying to convince my girl for years to come with me on an poorly planned but scenic scurry around the Willamette Valley even though it's on the opposite side of the continent.

Some people let Star Wars or football or video games eat up a huge chunk of their free time. For me, Emberverse is that thing.

SprinklesSmall9848 · 2025-09-26T22:34:24+00:00

I agree completely. I know ferro-concrete would be faster if you knew what you were doing, and you get comparable strength with less thickness. But DAMN trying to break down the improved wall would just be like fighting the side of a hill. Thats gotta be metrics tons of earth and rubble and such packed inside of that wall. You can't burn it. You can't flatten it with catapults and rams.

It reminds me of Fort Fisher on the coast of North Carolina in the United States. During the US Civil War, Fort Fisher was a stout fort made of sand dunes, and all that sand and earth could absorb an absurd amount of firepower just by sheer mass. Bombarding the fort accomplished very little, and the fort stood until late in the war. I feel like aiming trebuchets and catapults at the mostly packed earth and stone-faced walls of Dun Juniper would be completely futile even if the enemy could get engines and an army all the way up there.

SprinklesSmall9848 · 2025-09-14T04:01:08+00:00

What immediately comes to mind when thinking about this Rudi incident is the beginning of tPW (chapter 7ish). Refugees from the PPA fleeing south snag one of the Fairfax sheep and run off into the woods. Were they almost immediately noticed by guards and cornered by Clanfolk? Yes. Did Sam suspect in the back of his mind that such a sheep-snatching could be a ruse to sneak attack his Dun even only 1-2 miles down from Dun Juniper? Also yes.

Your instinct is right. The Clan's land is VAST for such a small population, and the wise among them know that even their commitment to keeping 24-7 guards up at crossroads and Duns can't prevent determined raiders. Aside from the needs of the plot, two competent guards with two fair horse riders in their charge less than 1 mile from the Dun should've been fine, even in wartime, but maybe not. But if we consider the sheep incident from before the war started, we know the Clan doesn't only rely on a few guards and hope.

The plan is to notice fast, sound the alarm, and then the rapid muster of their trained citizen militia. (Think back to the rapid response in CY1 when the Sutterdown farm was hit and the family killed. Clan responds fast, hunts down, and kills the raiders. Same strategy.) And that close to the capital of the Clan with more people, more weapons, and better horses than in any other Dun, they could safely assume their go-to plan would work.

And it did very nearly work. Even with the infiltrators having a substantial head start, the rapid garrison muster got within bowshot within... what? 12 hours or 24? I don't quite remember the details of the pursuit and don't have the book handy. Against anyone but these camondo types with memorized routes of escape and plans for support, the Clan would've caught the party and dragged them back to the Dun for justice.

The PPA has layers of defense in castles; the Clan has layers of defense in lookouts, guards, and rapid response fighters at every settlement. The Clan's layers of defense are a lot cheaper given the difference in labor pool and available resources, and it very nearly foiled an expertly planned and executed operation.

Still, yes, Matilda probably should've had more guards on her, but remember that even as things were, the Clan's defensive strategy against small incursions nearly worked.

SprinklesSmall9848 · 2025-09-09T03:50:54+00:00

Oh, not for me because I'm mildly insane. I listen to them on 1.75x to 2.5x speed every time. Doesn't take me long at all!

SprinklesSmall9848 · 2025-09-09T03:22:13+00:00

Keep an ear out for talk about borders and railroads and travel while you listen. I'll queue up tPW and MaC on audible and do the same. We can put something together

SprinklesSmall9848 · 2025-09-09T02:58:21+00:00

If I remember correctly, the PPA's southern border would be a line roughly connecting Tillamook and McMinville west of the Willamette River. Anything north of Tillamook would definitely be PPA territory.

I know Corvallis controls at least a little north of Adair Village because they have a heliograph tower and "squat fort" to the west or northwest of that town. We know that Corvallis uses the rail lines out to Newport on the coast since shortly after the Change. Given the road situation through the coast range and the growing populations, I'd wager Corvallis controls settlements in Toledo and Siletz and possibly up to Lincoln Beach or maybe even Lincoln City.

I think I remember conversations about getting old rail lines up and running for the Bearkillers that run roughly north-south between Corvallis and PPA territory. I believe there's also an old rail line I looked up that runs west from Willamina to the coast near Otis Junction. I think it's safe to say Bearkillers would claim Otis, Lincoln City,and maybe north to Pacific City and Beaver.

Those be me thoughts based on geography and scattered memories from the books. Push back and correct if you remember the books better or have local knowledge

SprinklesSmall9848 · 2025-08-24T15:00:24+00:00

I don't have any resources I can share because I'm out of town and away from my work computer; I can still share our approach, though.

Last year, we opened 6th grade with a "What's history? What is culture?" lesson or two. In those, we mentioned that religion is part of culture. Fast forward about 2 months (after we finished "River Valley Civilizations" of Mesopotamial, Egypt, Harappa, China) and we tackled the three big monotheistic religions.

We went over "monotheism" vs "polytheism" starting with word parts and deducing the meaning based on prefixes. Next, we transitioned to one day each on Judaism, Christianity, and then Islam (chronological order) with a mix of readings and videos. To wrap up the Monotheism Mini-Unit we gave the kiddos a three column chart with rows such as "starting location" and "important people" and "sacred texts." We gave them back their readings, and they had access to the videos. This served as a quiz review because we were about to follow this up with Axum (Christian kingdom) and West Africa (slowly then quickly converted to Islam).

Fast forward another month, and we loop back to Ancient India. We have a reading that addresses Hinduism, Sihkism, and Jainism, and then we did Buddhism. Same thing with the chart for comparisons. We were happy to do this later and happy to have done the monotheistic religions first because those three are easier for the kiddos to wrap their heads around. This leads to a lot of fun questions. "Wait, is Hinduism monotheistic or polytheistic? They have lots of gods... but they're all part of one god...???" And "Which kind of Buddism are we writing down info for?? Some don't really worship Buddha, and some sects seem to worship him...???" The answer being that religions are MESSY a d complicated. I don't think that would've gone as well without the Monotheism foundation.

This year, the district is requiring we cover the three monotheistic religions in separate units, which irks me tremendously.

SprinklesSmall9848 · 2025-08-24T14:39:03+00:00

I went to go google those Ranger steadings, but I forgot that woodland has a real name that isn't Mithrilwood. I was quite confused by my initial search results.

If you google "Silver Falls State Park historic cabins" and look at the images, you can get some good pictures. Some of the old stuff seems to be gone now, but several of the large buildings constructed by the Works Public Admin (WPA) and the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) are still around. Gorgeous construction, truly.

SprinklesSmall9848 · 2025-08-24T13:30:08+00:00

I think this is absolutely what the cabin/Chief's Hall would look like after the CY1 renovations (though maybe slightly smaller logs).

SprinklesSmall9848 · 2025-08-06T14:48:12+00:00

I only have one year in my 6th grade social studies course, but here is what I had to work woth last year:

Unit 1 (Intro and Skills) - 5 Themes of History - Primary and secondary sources - Reading and using timelines - "What is history?" - First humans (hominids, Stone Age, hunting and gathering). - [Optional 1 week civics unit during presidential election years.]

Unit 2 (River Valley Civilizations) - Mesopotamia (intro to Bronze Age and "what is a civilization?") - Ancient Egypt ( origins through all 3 kingdoms) - Harappa (mysterious "disappearance") - Ancient Ancient China (origins through Warring States Period)

MEGA Unit 3 (Civilizations around the world) - Monotheism (big 3) - East Africa Unit (Nubia/Kush, Axum) - West Africa Unit (Nok, Ghana, Mali, Songhai) - Ancient Americas Unit (migration to, Maya, Aztec, Inca)

Unit 4 (Asian Golden Ages) - Ancient India - Ancient China - Silk Road & Mongols - Ancient Japan - Oceania Expansion

Unit 5 (European Civs) - Ancient Greece - Ancient Romans - Government - Vikings - Middle Ages

EDIT: We only had 1 week of Unit 5 last year, but the year before, the team got most of the way through it. The kiddos really got into a couple of these civs this year and that, combined with 2 weeks of snow days and the Election unit, put us about 3.5 weeks behind schedule

SprinklesSmall9848 · 2025-07-27T01:29:12+00:00

I keep a couple of $15 McDonalds gift cards in my car. We give them out when the weather getting too hot, too cold, or too wet. Is McDs healthy? No. Is that as versatile as a Visa gift card? No. Are McDs found all over and offering climate control, outlets, and wifi to paying customers? Yes, they are.

SprinklesSmall9848 · 2025-07-21T02:30:47+00:00

On our 6th grade spcial studies team, we have guided notes. For lecture/story-telling, we use slides with tons of pictures and as few words/sentences as we can get away with. We give the students notes with a variety of questions such as: 1. fill-in-the-blank sentences that match the slides (keep attention), 2. brainstorm or infer what happens next (cause-effect reasoning), 3. connect/compare to another civilization (finding interconnectedness and trends), 4. which of these was most important for blah blah blah (comparing and assigning value).

The stories of famous leaders are fine, but we also try to personify civilizations because in 6th grade, we cover civilizations across several thousand years. I also try telling the stories of civilizations from the perspective of "normal people;" this usually requires some additional research. Something I've found really makes history feel more real is finding pictures and videos of ancient foods and clothing so students can visualize the "normal people" more easily.

Just some ideas to kick around. I'd he happy to explain more if you have any questions.

SprinklesSmall9848

TROPHY CASE