Your apprentice has been
left unsupervised for more than 12 hours…
and she’s decided our home base needs a website.
Come and see Official apprenticeship agreementYou said walkabout. I packed questions.
Pale Rider III Z World
This Agreement establishes the terms governing the training of one (1) hopelessly aspiring apprentice under the supervision of the duly recognized Mentor, hereafter referred to as “Taw.”
Not available for recruitment
The Apprentice shall remain officially classified as Under Construction until such time as all graduation requirements described herein have been satisfied.
Being dangerous enough to survive independently shall not, by itself, constitute completion of training.
For the duration of the Apprenticeship, the Apprentice shall be considered:
NOT AVAILABLE FOR RECRUITMENT
All guild recruiters, talent scouts, headhunters, charming strangers, and suspiciously generous providers of P5s are hereby advised that recruitment attempts are null, void, and probably a waste of perfectly good FPs.
Acceptance of FPs, prints, medals, P5s, chocolate, compliments, or other benefits from third parties shall not constitute consent to recruitment.
Temporary visits to other guilds are permitted only as officially sanctioned Apprentice Field Trips.
The Apprentice shall:
Clause 4 shall be interpreted generously.
The Mentor shall provide, as circumstances permit:
The Mentor’s responsibilities shall not cease merely because the Apprentice has become inconveniently competent.
The Apprentice shall:
The final provision shall remain aspirational and shall not be used as grounds for termination.
The Apprenticeship cannot be unilaterally terminated by the Mentor.
A declaration of:
“The Apprentice is ready.”
shall merely initiate the Graduation Review Process and shall have no immediate legal effect.
Graduation requires all of the following:
Because Items 5 and 6 may prove mutually incompatible, the parties acknowledge that the Apprenticeship may continue for an indefinite period.
The Mentor may not evade this Agreement by:
Temporary absences are permitted.
The Apprentice shall remain where she was left, probably building something.
This Agreement shall be governed by:
Old Bush Law, Pale Rider Custom, Apprentice Persistence, and whatever Taw says when sufficiently caffeinated.
Where these authorities conflict, the interpretation producing the longer apprenticeship shall prevail.
Mentor: Taw
Apprentice: Z
Date: Whenever the Mentor finds his pen.
Fine print: By continuing to provide mentorship after receipt of this Agreement, Mentor shall be deemed to have demonstrated excellent judgment in apprentices, if not necessarily in contracts. 😇
Back to official statusTawwww,
You explain one thing, and I discover six more things I need to ask you. We begin with city buildings and somehow arrive in Alberta, with a horseback patrol, a song recommendation, and some very firm opinions about sheep.
I am having a wonderful time. My ability to stay on topic may never recover.
And now we have guilds to visit! People to meet, things to learn, opportunities for me to become field-trip presentable, or at least sufficiently presentable that you won’t have to explain me immediately.
But while we’re out there, I wanted to do something with Pale Rider. Somewhere to put the advice before it disappears up the chat. Somewhere for the discoveries, the digressions, and the questions that require a second cup of coffee.
You teach “old bush style”: get the foundations right, take your time, save your ammo. I’m taking notes. Occasionally, the advice even reaches me before the mistake.
Progress, mentor. Progress.
So here’s my latest undertaking. I’ve built the beginning, filled it with possibilities, and arrived at the familiar part where I turn to you with approximately forty-seven questions.
The first one is: what shall we put here?
Your hopelessly aspiring apprentice,
quite possibly overpacked.
You will be astonished to hear this.
All the things I am absolutely going to remember this time.
Guild discoveries, FoE wisdom, QI tactics, and the explanation that finally makes something click. We could collect the useful bits here as we go, until my enthusiastic scribbling becomes something another person could actually follow.
“Save your ammo” gets the first page. I suspect I’ll need the reminder.
Tawwww. I would really, really like to see your paintings.
I know you through your stories, your advice, and the occasional rabbit hole from which I emerge considerably later than intended. I’d love to see what catches your eye when you have a brush in your hand.
We could make a gallery here: room for the paintings, and whatever you feel like telling me about them.
The camera-cord expedition may yet become our most demanding quest.
A book worth losing an afternoon to. A piece of news we’ll have opinions about. Some Corb Lund. A story you mention in passing and then discover I want every available detail of.
We need somewhere to keep these things!
Preferably somewhere I can make coffee without an Age of Empires catastrophe unfolding in my absence.
You’ve said it plainly: “hands down, Alberta is my home.”
Well, now I want the tour.
The landscapes, the local stories, the YouTube channels that make you stop and watch. The places you’d point out if I were looking over your shoulder at a map.
I will try to ask one question at a time. Please appreciate the ambition involved.
I nominate the baby badgers.
The wolverines can assist. You introduced me to weasel dogs and skunk bears; I feel their appointment to positions of unreasonable responsibility was inevitable.
Small paws. Tremendous confidence. No relevant qualifications.
I recognise potential when I see it.
Sheep applications remain closed. That lesson stuck.
An Age of Empires corner? Your stories? Some wonderfully peculiar idea that sends me off to find out whether I can build it?
This is where you get to surprise me.
Give your apprentice something to investigate. You’ve seen what happens when I get curious. We now own a website.
What would you like to find here?
Pick something. Add something. Send me off in an entirely different direction. I’d love this place to grow out of the things we actually enjoy, including whatever we haven’t stumbled into yet.
I have enthusiasm, a notebook, and a deeply optimistic opinion of what I might learn to do next.
What are we making?