Howitzer's Homepage

    Welcome to my homepage. I'm Rev. Jon Foster a.k.a. Howitzer.  I am an ordained minister in the Church of the Northern European Warrior Tradition, which is based in Seattle, Washington.  I am the only one not living in Washington State.  I live in New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada.

    You are probably wondering why I go by the name Howitzer.  It all started back in 1994 at a Science Fiction convention called OmniCon 1 (twitch, shudder), where I joined a live action role-playing club called the 1st Mechanized Infantry Division (M.I.D. for short).  They wanted their members to have a character name that had a name of a weapon in it.  I wanted to use Katana, but it was already taken, so I was stuck until I saw an episode of "M*A*S*H" where Hawkeye burned his eyes after trying to fix the stove in the nurse's tent and Klinger brought him a duck call.  After one of Hawkeye's usual comments, Klinger said "It was either this or a howitzer", and Hawkeye replied with "I can't put my lips around a howitzer".  :)

    I've been going to Science Fiction conventions for ten years now in the Pacific Northwest.  My first con was Westercon 44 back in 1991, but I didn't stay for very long.  The first con that I fully attended was V-Con 20 in 1993 where I volunteered in security and they had lost my volunteer hours sometime on Saturday morning of the con, and the last recorded hours was at 32, and this was only a three day convention.

    At most conventions you will see me with a radio surgically attached to my hip with an intravenous unit going to my brain via the ear since I'm volunteering in security.  And I've been known to put in an insane amount of volunteer hours and walk away with most of the prizes from the volunteers' raffle.  Now I am either a member of the on-site staff or committee member in the security department (I think they are doing this to me so that I can't walk away with any of the prizes :) ).

    At Orycon 23 in November of 2001, I went from being one of the shift leads in security to the Operations 2nd in charge of security because the Operations head might not have been able to make it because his unit was on stand-by to go to the Middle East because of the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington D.C..  I was the Head of Operations for Orycons 24 and 25, and have been asked to do it again for Orycon 26.  And for some strange reason, I usually end up in one of two rooms every year on the third floor in one of the quiet wings.

    I haven't worked in security at every convention that I've been to (GASP!).  I've also helped run an internet room, ran a friend's table in the dealers' room selling swords, been the 2nd Head of Volunteers, and worked in the Convention Operations room.  I've even assisted on a couple of discussion panels at the last moment.

    The first picture above is of my friend Dragon (yes that's his real name) with some of the props that he has made for various television shows and movies.  The second picture is of Dragon and his new friend Den of Earth, who is owned by one of my ex-girlfriends Monique (the snake has more friends than she does at conventions).  The third picture is of Dragon and Monique and a fellow con-goer. At Norwescon 23, I had the honor of co-officiating her public wedding with her two husbands. Due to a certain incident a in 1998 with Monique, I became her "Knight in Klingon Battle Armour".

    I am a member of as one of the Etiquette Enforcement Mook Squad  (Merchants of Deva security) and I'm a part of the elite members of the Bazaar Bar Brewmeisters League.  The Merchants of Deva  are well known for their room parties at Norwescon.

    Another club that I belong to are the Mercat's as one of two chaplains.  The Mercat's are merchant marines, who run supplies to various places across the galaxy.  The Mercat's are known for holding an open house during the first day of the con ( usually Norwescon) where hot food is being served in a relaxed atmosphere.  The Mercat's have been known to come to the rescue of the hospitality department by donating our left over food.

    I'm an associate member of the Order of St. Chiros, which is a Christian Science Fiction fan club.  The Order of St. Chiros holds religious services at the conventions they go to.  One of the member's joked that she was "jealous" of me being a Pagan because we hold our circles in the middle of the night and they hold their services first thing in the morning.  :) 

    I am also one of the clerics for the Seattle based Klingon Diplomatic Corps, and our motto is "We Are The Klingon Diplomatic Corps...Which Means We Don't Have To Be Diplomatic!".

    And I play a Klingon Admiral in a loosely formed club that is based on the Terran Empire.  The above photo was taken at a CreationCon a few years ago and I'm the one dressed as the Imperial Klingon.  I came in second place in the costume contest.

    I am also actively involved in the SCA as a member of a couple households like House Inshallah and the An Tir 7th Cav., which is one of  the largest mercenary companies in the Kingdom of An Tir.  I am also affiliated with the following Households: Clan McGurn, House Fhtagn, House Dueling Roses, Scorpions Tail, House Khabeelah, House Gremlin, House Chimera, and Temple Caffiena.  I reside in the Barony of Lions Gate in the Principality of Tir Righ, which is part of the Kingdom of An Tir, where I serve as the Captain of the Watch (formally known as a Baronial Constable) for our Barony. 

    This picture was taken at Clinton War in 1998 in the interior of Tir Righ.  We don't use real swords or "live steel" in actual combat.  In the SCA my name is His Lordship Jón Bjarnason banu Khabeelah of House McGurn.

    At most events I can be found in the House Inshallah encampmen, or the Khabeelah encampment assisting others with whatever they may need help with, and when I'm not there, I can be found hanging out at Temple Caffiena.

    I like listening to heavy metal music from the 80's like Iron Maiden, but I also like listening to other types of music.  My favorite television shows are: The WWE's Raw Is War and Smackdown (my favorite character is The Undertaker ).  Highlander: The Series (I have a replica katana from the show).  Star Trek: TNG and Deep Space 9 (I have a copy of the actual Sword of Kahless ( the one that I'm holding in the picture at the top of the page) that was seen on DS9 (the original one is broken), but due to Dragon's busy schedule he wasn't able to finish it, but he did give me the instructions on how to do the finishing touches).  I have the actual mold for the Klingon communicator.  I like to go horseback riding (English saddle), but haven't done so in quite some time now.

    I had the honor of meeting Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, the President of Iceland.  He was in Vancouver for a two day State Visit and on the second day he visited people in the Icelandic community (it was his first State visit to Canada since becoming the President of Iceland).  I'm half Icelandic and live at the house that is owned by the local Icelandic club, and on August 6th, 2000 he was at my house to visit the heritage library and dedicate a plaque to the new Settlers' Garden that surrounds the house.  The dog in the last picture is Garr, he's an R.C.M.P.. bomb sniffing dog that went through my house about an hour before the President arrived.

    The following set of pictures are of some friends of mine in the Science Fiction and/or SCA circuit.

    This is my friend Eva who is the Chatelaine of the Tir Righ chapter of House Inshallah in the SCA.  She is also the Principality Chatelaine for Tir Righ.

    Here are a couple pictures of my adopted younger sister Julz (she actually adopted me).  She is a really good friend and she gives very therapeutic hugs.

    When she first met me in 1999, someone told her some nasty things about me (which weren't true) and was a little apprehensive being around me.  But after some time she got to know me better and then one day she came up to visit me because she was going through some stress in her life and needed to get away from it all for awhile.  Her timing for her visit couldn't have been better since I was feeling stressed out and one of my main sources of relaxation was still a couple of weeks away.  And when she finally arrived and hugged me all the stress in my body was lifted and I was able to handle my stress until I went to Norwescon 23.  Thanx sis!  BIG HUGS!

    Speaking of Norwescon 23 , she was stuck on an idea for a costume she wanted to make for the masquerade competition, and when she mentioned she wanted to do something anime based.  I came up with the idea of her being one of the Sailor Scouts who became tired of Sailor Moon's constant whining and took jobs on the side (grin).  She took my idea and created Sailor Io, the mercany Sailor Scout.  I was given design concept credit for it and she won a Judge's Choice award for her costume (way to go sis!).  I should also give her credit for starting the basics for my web page.

    This is my friend Chrissi, who I met at Norwescon 23.  She came to the convention at the request of a mutual friend of ours, Riff (yes that's his real name) who is the head of the Merchants of Deva.  I hope to see her more at future conventions since we didn't get to talk very much at Norwescon since I was busy in helping run a room party with the Merchants of Deva and she only dropped by on Saturday night.  She also gives good hugs.  Love the pants sweetie. :)

    This is my friend Richard AKA Prince Ka and I've known him since 1994.  At a really bad point in my life Richard was there for me as a great strength of emotional support. Unfortunately Richard has passed away due to cancer, and cons will never be the same again. :(

    These are just a couple extra pictures of my friend Dragon with some of his friends after doing a live steel demonstration at one of the many conventions I attend every year.

    This is my friend Scott during a nasty battle with my old tent at an SCA event.  The fight was pretty gruesome, but Scott won in the end by wrestling the tent into submission :).

    Scott is also the head of the Mercat Lines, and he is known to come up to Canada just before a convention or SCA event in the Pacific Northwest and kidnap me and won't let me return to Canada until after the convention or SCA event is over.

    The following three pictures are of some famous and not-so famous people I have met at various conventions over the years.

    This is David Rossi, he's a production associate for "Star Trek: Deep Space 9" and "Star Trek: Voyager".  I met him at a Star Trek/X-Files convention in Vancouver back in the mid 90's where a club I belonged to provided security for the event..

    The above to photographs are of Craig Charles (Lister) and Danny John-Jules (Cat) from the British Sci/Fi series "Red Dwarf".  This was taken at Anglicon 11 where I was the 2nd head of security.  I found out after the convention that Danny John-Jules and I are exactly ten years apart to the day in age.

    This picture was taken at Rustycon 15 in the hospitality suite after the convention was over and there were only a few of us left at the hotel.  This is what happens when sleep dep, boredom, and lots of drinking takes place. :)

Here are some links to some sites I think you should visit.

Orycon (A Science Fiction Convention held every year in Portland, OR)

Lady Jaynes Books (Nice selection of Science Fiction & Fantasy books)

Dumb Laws (These were actual laws, some of them are still on the books)

Darwin Awards (People who died for really stupid reasons)