Character Obsessions

I've been a rather horrible blogger recently, a bad student too. There's my general laziness but contributing to the problems recently have been my character obsessions. I occasionally get drawn into spirals of useless character obsession that can take up a sickening amount of time. I've done this for as long as I can remember with a variety of T.V. and books. I find a character or a world in which I fall in love and continually daydream about it. I create characters and insert them into the world and make up a continuation of the story. It's essentially fanfic that I don't write down and it's the bad shit too since they usually involve a Mary-Sue (a perfected awesome version of me) but not always. The first time I did this was with the Xena universe, there was Sinbad the sailor, and then it was Lord of the Rings. Actually I'm pretty sure my first sexual fantasy included Aragorn. When I was a teen I fell into the dark, hopeless chasm that is Harry Potter fanfic and it truly got scary. It started as a bit of innocent fun with a friend where we would email each other the good stories we found and I read more and more until finally my friend emailed saying, 'uhm, you can stop sending me stories I don't read fanfic anymore', but I couldn't give it up. It honestly was an addiction, I spent hours and hours scrolling through potential stories trying to find some of the gems, or the ones with my favourite themes(Severitus ftw!) or ships. Then hours reading the stories, and then if I couldn't find anything that fit what I wanted perfectly then I would lay in bed making up my own stories. My mom would occasionally ask me if I was depressed because she didn't like that I would lay in my bed alone all the time. When she would ask what I was doing she wasn't content with my typical response of 'thinking', I mean how could I tell her I was making up my own fantasy stories? My school work suffered because I just couldn't care about it when I could be reading fanfic instead. One of the worst things about this obsession though was that I stopped reading anything else. I have always been a voracious reader and while I was technically reading it really isn't the same. When I finally did break out of the habit (a lot of it had to do with the fact that the authors of two of my favourite rather huge stories- I mean they each wrote books worth of material- either went on hiatus or were taking so long to update that it drove me crazy)it took a long time for me to be able to read new material again. I couldn't even handle epic fantasy, I had to start off rather simple with the Drizzt Do'Urden books and got obsessed with those until I was able to guess everything Drizzt would do before he did it and I got bored (no offense to R.A. Salvatore fans but they're rather simplistic).
So yes, occasionally I get obsessed with characters or worlds and it can take up a lot of time. My recent obsession is this man:

Well I should say character. It's John Pope from Falling Skies. I think it's a testament to Colin Cunningham's acting (which is great!) that I'm not obsessed with him, just this character he plays. The show's writers have given him an interesting back story that I'm interested in seeing more about when the show continues next year. Though there is some stuff with Maggie that I'm not quite sure they realize how incredibly sketchy the road they're going down is. Anyway, I digress. I've watched the show through twice now, I've also gone through and just watched the parts with Pope in them. His hold on me is loosening now so I think I can return to my regularly scheduled life but I just needed to comment on this because it has been a number of years since a character/story has consumed me so entirely.
Now if only I could make myself because so obsessed the characters I've created I may actually write something of my own.

tl;dr

Paris July 8th w/ Capetian Tours

 Didn't have much time to do stuff on Saturday morning because I was meeting people at noon and most things opened at 9:30-10.  By the time I got to the Musee d'Orsay there was already a long lineup so I knew that even if I got in I would have to hurry through it and decided I wasn't going to try. Instead I walked around taking pictures of nearby pretty buildings.

At noon I met with my friends Jason Sager and Chris Enns of Capetian Tours. Jason and Chris are two professional historians who started their tour guide in Paris this summer. They offer personalized tours that are capped at 5-6 people so you'll never have to crowd into a site with 25 other tourists all trying to hear a single tour guide.  Jason is a professor at Wilfrid Laurier University and taught both Chris and myself while we attended. His courses were the type of class I took even if I wasn't necessarily interested in the material (Renaissance, ick!) but knew it would have interesting lectures and be a worthwhile credit.
The tour started at Basilica of St Denis which is in the north part of the city. Legend has it that St. Denis who is the patron saint of France was decapitated at Montmartre and afterward carried his head to the location of the current church.

 There's a necropolis where all but three French kings have been buried which is pretty cool. I won't tell you any details because I'll let Jason and Chris do that. They have a store of interesting and historical stories to tell that are relevant to each site and the history of Paris.

Rose window

That tart Marie Antoinette falling out of her dress. 

Next was St. Germain des Pres church which is a really cool painted Romanesque church. It's also the home of the tomb of Rene Descartes.

 After that we passed by the ruins of the oldest church in Paris, St Julien le Pauvre on our ways to St. Chappelle's church which was built by Louis IX to house Jesus' crown of thorns (yyeahh, right). The upstairs of this church is absolutely stunning. It seems like there is more glass than wall.

SO if you're in Paris and at all a fan of medieval history you should most definitely contact Capetian Tours. I believe the price listed on the website is currently under discussion so don't let that stop you. It's a really interesting and informative tour that would make any medievalist happy.


I went back to my hostel after looking around some shopping streets and again there was a get-together in the evening in the common room of the hostel and I told Chris and another fellow student Barry and his cousin to come to the hostel to meet people, so they did and we all had a pretty good time just sitting around chatting with people known old and new.

Paris July 7

The day started with a very early morning in order to catch my Ryanair flight that was at 6:45am. I attempted and failed to get a couple hours of sleep so I got up at 2:15, had a shower and double-checked all my luggage before catching a city bus into downtown at 3:27. I caught the 4am bus to the Rygge airport which was jam packed and I was uncomfortable and soaking wet. At that time I really really wished I had taken the last train into the airport the night before and attempted to sleep in the airport, I probably would have been substantially better rested. 
Flight was quite uneventful as I dozed in and out of sleep before arriving at the Beauvais airport. I hadn't really done any research for this trip so I was mildly shocked to find out the only way into Paris was to take a bus that cost €15. Since two or three planes had recently arrived there were tons of people waiting for the buses and it took about an hour and a half to simply buy a ticket let alone wait in a different line to get on the bus.
Then there was the 2+ hour drive into Paris in traffic. Lovely. At least it let me nap a little more.
They finally dropped us off near the edge of the city and I got a metro pass and map and went to find my hostel. I stayed at Smart Place Paris. I was too early for check-in so I left my bags and went to Versailles.

Lots and lots of gold around Versailles. Personally I think it's a little gauche but who am I to judge?

However, there was a giant line-up despite the very bad weather Paris was having that day.

The line was longer than the building.

The huge line combined with the €25 entrance fee (there are cheaper options if you only want to see certain parts of the grounds, the 25 is for a full pass) meant that I didn't go into Versailles. I tried to walk around the gardens because they're often free but they have some sort of show on every night recently so they were charging €6,50 to get in so I didn't care enough for that either. I decided to walk around in the park area that was free and wandering around to see the royal horses.

While in the park I heard a horrible noise. Thunder. Shortly afterwards I was soaked through. My umbrella was essentially useless. I attempted to huddle under a doorway for a while to let it pass but by that point I was so wet that there wasn't a point. Sopping wet I decided to head back to the hostel.

That night in the hostel was really great. When I got back I brought my laptop down to the lounge and ate some food I picked up at the grocery store. A couple other people came down and a few chatted with each other because they had met before and there were periods of silence and chatter. Eventually though a topic came up that I had something to say about so I overcame my silence and my instinct to just be quiet and I spoke. I was drinking a bottle of wine and as the night wore on and more people were chatting overs decided so go get some more. I drank basically a whole bottle to myself while a couple people had a glass or two of a different bottle but it definitely helped move the conversation along. The talk eventually moved on to talk of going somewhere, the original decision was the grounds of the Sacre Coeur church but another group came down that knew a couple in our group and said they were going to the Eiffel Tower. So we were at the Eiffel tower for midnight where this happens (apologies for the sideways-ness):

We then got nutella crepes and ate the beside the tower in the rain which had started again. There was a long metro ride back because the more direct route had closed down for the night. I collapsed in my bed a happy but slightly damp traveler.
I was also pleased with myself because I had the option to stick with the easy and familiar and go hang out with some friends from university at a Canadian sports bar ( in Paris, I know wtf?) but I decided to have a more authentic evening with new people.

Eiffel Tower at night

Louis XIV

Book Review- The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen

The CorrectionsI almost 'lemmed' (gave up on) this book. I hated almost every second of reading the first half of this novel. Hearing the pathetic mewling of the self-obsessed depressed characters regularly made me want to bang my face into a wall rather than read. The second half improved somewhat because I found Denise to be the least fucked-up and mentally oblivious member of the Lambert family and the Lithuania stuff was mildly interesting and because I expected Chip to get shot. I didn't feel a second of sympathy for any of the characters. I'm surprised and horrified at the amount of people who say that Franzen has done an amazing job recounting dysfunctional family life and that they recognize real people in his characters. really? Fuck, how haven't you killed them or yourself yet?  Maybe once every 50 page or so there was some mild thing that seemed familiar to me in something a character said or did but thankfully I don't know anyone like the characters in this book (rare glimpses of my mother in Enid scared the shit out of me). I actually found some of the auxiliary characters more interesting that the main cast, particularly the woman on the cruise ship but I'm glad Franzen didn't write any more about her or else he probably would have made her mentally rabid as well. I don't know if it a structural issue or ebook formatting but several of the pov transitions were very abrupt and didn't have any connection/ chapter ending/ or even a page divider to mark the change. I also felt very weird reading the book on the metro when suddenly I turned the page and Chip's listing of mentions of breasts in his screenplay appeared in 20pt font. 
Random bits I highlighted:
"but from her underpants, which to his relief were delicate and sheer -distinctly gendered- an affectionate warm rabbit came springing, a kicking wet autonomous warm animal. It was almost more than he could handle."       um, ew.
"Suzy Ghosh asked the table in a voice like hair in a shampoo commercial" what does this mean? that her voice was silky? then say her fucking voice was silky. I have never personally or known anyone to describe anything as being like hair in a shampoo commercial besides hair in a shampoo commercial. Maybe it hasn't been done before because it's pointless.

The one good thing I can say about Franzen is that his prose flows well. If I hadn't wanted to personally murder all but one of the characters and smash my own head in with a brick I would have found it a relatively smooth easy read.

I'm going to FRANCE!

I apologize for my inconsistent posting. Since returning from Canada I've been horribly lazy, spending most of my time watching Hell's Kitchen, sleeping, and maybe reading a little bit. I almost had a chance to work on a husky farm in Northern Norway but got it grasped away from me by another workaway-er who was able to commit to longer than I could. I was strongly considering going to Manchester to visit a friend doing her Master's there and then go through Scotland or Wales from there but while I could get cheap flights there (I'm talking like $20) the traveling through countries and finding accommodation is pricier than volunteering.
So in my annoyance at failed plans and general discontent at myself for being lazy I logged back on to workaway.info and checked their 'last-minute' page. My goal through workaway was to find some place to work with animals as my top priority and preferably dogs or horses. And right there was a host looking for people to help at a farm in south Normandy, France with 7 horses, 4 dogs, 4 goats, chickens, and cats along with helping with various building projects. I sent a message saying I was available almost immediately until the end of July if they had room for me. I've had bad experience with workaway hosts taking FOREVER to reply if they reply at all so I was amazed and surprised when I got a reply within an hour. And they had room.
So in the period of approx 4 hours I found an opportunity, made a decision, and booked a ticket. Easily the most spontaneous big decision I've ever made. So from 7 July to 1 August I will be in France. I'll spend a couple days in Paris when I arrive and then take a train south to near the farm.
Then from 3-13 August I'll be in Aarhus, Denmark for the Saga Conference. I'm there for a little longer than the conference because those were the cheapest flight dates. I still need to figure out accommodation and write the paper I'm presenting in the conference.
I'm currently celebrating with half a bottle of red wine. I can't wait to get the real good stuff while in France. Tomorrow I'll start making actual plans as to what to do in my short time in Paris and try and get started working on my paper just so I can fully enjoy my time in France exploring rather than cooped up working on an essay.
So very very exciting- things are happening. I had blabbered on so much about random plans that I was worried people may start considering me one of those people who talk about doing things while doing nothing and while I don't care what others think I couldn't disappoint myself like that.
WOOO

Last Full Day at Home

It's my last full day at home before I head back to Oslo. I came back for three weeks and now I wish I had made the trip a little longer. The first week I was in Canada was mostly spent in Waterloo attending the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences at Wilfrid Laurier and University of Waterloo. I participated for the second year with the Association for the Advancement of Scandinavian Studies in Canada (AASSC cuz it's such a mouthful) and presented basically the same paper as the conference in Prague. This was not out of laziness but because I wanted to see what two very different audiences would think about my work. The response was really positive and many people had remembered by paper on Turisas from last year and had wished I played some music or performance clips for them like I did during the break last time. I unfortunately wasn't able to attend the majority of panels because I had a home exam due for my Old Norse Religion class back in Oslo, really unfortunate timing. I did catch a very interesting talk given by the former president of the Canadian Society of Medievalists on Beowulf and Boyology which actually gave me some stuff to think about for my topic. Medievalism really is so interesting.
I also caught one of my favourite authors.

Margaret Atwood!

I was devastated when I realized I left my copy of Handmaid's Tale in a different bag so then I couldn't get it signed afterwards. 

While in Waterloo I stayed with a former professor and good friend Renee, her husband Darren, and their four cats Lucy, Petri, Fred, and Ximon. Some people think it's a little weird I'd stay with someone who was my prof but seriously, profs can be awesome, get to know yours. It was also convenient because she would pester me to work on my home exam. They made me eat vegetables though, silly vegetarians.  :( On Friday night another former prof Alicia, a fellow student Amy and her boyfriend Tom came over for dinner (weird all vegetarian and gluten-free Mexican food, I ate millet, I thought it was only for birds). It was lovely seeing everyone again and enjoyed some nice conversation over wine/beer/sangria. 

The only downside, there were SO many people I didn't see in Waterloo. People were out celebrating a friend's birthday on the Friday but after pulling an all-nighter on the home exam I could barely stay awake through dinner let alone go out to a bar. I did drop by Homesense and I saw a couple people but not the one that means the most to me, my little sister Alisha.  

Back in Mississauga it's been a litany of doctor and dentist appointments as I did my yearly nonsense with my cardiologist having to go into Toronto for an Echocardiogram, Signal Average ECG, wear a holtor monitor for 24 hours that picked up some funny stuff while at a party that night. Then I got my wisdom teeth removed on June 5th which really has NOT been fun. I fainted on the way to the hospital the next morning to get my results from the cardiologist (don't worry just low blood pressure though the people who I splashed with my fruit smoothie probably had very high blood pressure for a while). 

I saw my brothers (one is coming over later today- it's his 41st birthday, what an old fogey :p). Saw a number of friends in Clarkson that I went to high school with and partied it up. Spent a couple days moping around the house trying to find things soft enough to eat while pressing a bag of frozen peas to my face and feeling light headed from percacets. Went shopping for some stuff that's either unavailable or much more expensive in Oslo. Hid inside with the air conditioner to avoid the above 30 degree heat.

It's been a good time. Now it's just time to figure out the rest of the summer. I heard back from a husky farm up in the north of Norway that said I can come up but we haven't finalized it and it's been over a week since I heard from them which is complicating things as prices get more expensive each day I wait to book tickets anywhere.   

Prague May 8-12

I really have to write a paper on the Poetic Edda so I'm catching up on blog writing instead. :D The life of a perpetual procrastinator.

Basically Prague was wonderful. It's easily the most beautiful city I have ever been in. I constantly found myself looking around in wonder at everything. The architecture is lovely with random carvings everywhere. There's few boring looking buildings. Certainly no hideous glass skyscrapers that adorn most large cities these days. Just generally very old-world Europe and I loved it. Helped that the weather was lovely while there being mid to high-20s. I, unfortunately, didn't really pack for that but it was ok; I was just drenched in sweat for a portion of each day.
This was my first couchsurfing experience and while I was little apprehensive about staying with a random couple for free it turned out really really well. They were fantastically welcoming and I also met an American girl who was also couchsurfing with them because she lost her passport in Austria and missed her flight home. She had stayed with them earlier in her trip and when she was stranded they let her stay another night which I thought was very nice. The first night we all ate dinner and drank wine together (as well as a couple shots of Slivovice) and chatted about our travels and random stuff. Everyone was a bit tired so it was actually a pretty early night.
On Wednesday I wandered around a little bit before conference registration started at 12:30. The conference venue was only about 15 minute walk from my couchsurfing host so I left a couple hours early and explored the city in the best way I know how- I got lost. Seriously, I love getting to a new place and having only an idea of where to head and just walking in the direction that feels right. Of course, this is only during the day and when I don't have any pressing needs to attend to or crap to carry. So I wandered around the streets and came across St Charles Bridge which is probably the best known tourist attractions in Prague and it was crawling with other tourists.

It's got lots of religious sculptures along it that look pretty cool and you could tell that many were very important to people as they lined up to touch certain pieces or take pictures with them. This one embossing of a dog was hard to get a picture of between people touching it.

I'm guessing it's Saint Guinefort since that's the only dog-saint I know of.

I stopped at the tourist centre inside the tower on the bridge and finally got a map, but I tried to avoid looking at it. I wandered back to the side of the river I need to be on and walked along it a far as I could which was quite beautiful. I came to a big wall and was really curious as to was it was part of so when I came upon a small door into it I checked it out. It was the Czech Senate buildings and they're, unfortunately, not named on any of the tourist maps I've seen which is really a shame because they're buildings and gardens are quite beautiful.
There's a walkway with sculptures of the Greek gods and goddesses.

Behind that is a entranceway covered in stunning paintings.

The aviary and an example of the awesome artificial drip wall thingy. There were all sorts of carved creatures and scenes hidden within the textured wall. It was really quite cool. 

And an aviary with a bunch of owls:  hoo hoo. They were all sleeping though because of the heat and the sun. I honestly looked at this cage for a good ten minutes before I even realized what I was supposed to be looking for.

And there's a pool with a George and the dragon type sculpture in the middle. They really seemed to like St George.









After leaving the senate grounds I continued wandering and found my conference venue. The building- Michna Palace, was really nice. The outside wasn't anything particularly fancy but inside was beautiful. I feel like an idiot for not getting any pictures of inside the room we had the conference in because the walls and part of the ceiling was just covered in sculpture. You can kinda see a bit of it in this picture of the Music, Metal, and Politics sign.

The conference group (most of them):

The conference itself was fantastic and it was really really great to finally meet a group of people who take metal as serious academic material and to whom I don't have to justify my studies or explain what metal is. It was also really great because it truly was interdisciplinary and had people representing anthropology, musicology, women's studies, etc as well as me the medievalist. This should be a given considering the whole thing is headed by inter-disciplinary.net who runs conferences and other academic meetings as well as publications in multiple fields of interest. But at the conference we were all metal-llectuals. If you're at all interested in the conference proceedings itself the programme can be found here: http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/critical-issues/ethos/music-metal-politics/conference-programme-abstracts-and-papers/ and eventually the site will publish an e-book of papers presented at the conference. And excitingly, I will be part of the steering committee for next years' conference (of whenever because there might be a break) and I help with selection of abstracts and whatever else. There was/is a possibility of helping to edit the aforementioned e-book but I'm nervous of the responsibilities. Given that I'm unsure of what my plans for the summer are and I don't know how reliable of an internet connection I'll have I didn't want to commit to something I wasn't sure I could do. Would look great on my CV though.
Most nights were spent in a great little metal pub called Hell's Bells which was a small underground little thing. One night they were showing a hockey game and part of our group made themselves very unpopular by sitting on the stage partially blocking the screen. I told them not to but the bartender kept insisting (we had been there the previous night and they knew we ordered a lot). Myself and two others sat elsewhere until the end of the game cleared some tables for us all to sit together. Didn't stay out too late either night since we had an early start in the mornings and I didn't want to wake up my host. And I had to figure out the night tram system. Oh, I was the only one in my group to use the public transport system which kind of shocked me. I probably saw more of Prague than the rest because of it and the fact that I stayed elsewhere than the ridiculously expensive hotels  within minutes of the venue.
At night:

Speaking of hotels, my couchsurfing hosts could only host me until Friday (though on Thursday night I was offered the continued use of the couch even though they were going out of town- like seriously that's how nice and trusting they were) but I had already booked a hostel bed online I figured I'd go with that. Now I booked a bed in a 18bed mixed dorm for $9 so I was expecting some sketchy accommodations. Well, I was surprised as fuck when I got to St. Christopher's at the Mosaic House. They had upgraded me to a 6 bed room and it was wonderful. Seriously better than most hotels I've been to and certainly better than some of the conditions I heard another attendee paid $100+ per night for (thankfully she'll be reimbursed by her university). I took a glorious 20 minute long shower once I got to the room which was fantastic since though my couchsurfing hosts were great their shower was horrid.  After showering I hung around the room for a bit until the one other occupant came in. She was an American who started traveling around Ireland with her mom and then stayed to travel around Europe alone for another 2 1/2 months. She also had been upgraded and had had the room to herself for the past couple nights.
On Friday night the handful of remaining conference attendees (I was surprised how many people had flights almost immediately after the end of the conference) went to dinner together. There was some talk of trying to find a place to sit outside and have a couple beers because of the gorgeous night weather but it seems like pretty much everything closes up on that side of the river after around 11 and the others didn't want to walk around much more to find something open so we parted ways and said we'd hopefully see everyone at the metal conference at Bowling Green next year.
I got back to the hostel around midnight and while I easily could have gone down to the bar in the hostel building I decided I just didn't feel like being social so I climbed into bed and watched Big Bang Theory and Grey's Anatomy. I went to bed pretty early for a night in a party town but it was the better decision since I wanted to wake up early the next day. Oh, two guys joined the dorm room, I knew that other people had put their bags in the room but I didn't know anything about them until I opened my eyes in the morning to see a guy in tighty whiteys climbing down from the top bunk to use the washroom.
My one tourist day was the one day it was cool and rainy but I was glad for it because of all the walking I did. My feet were SO sore by the end of the day. While they look cool I'm not a fan of cobblestones.
Random pictures around Prague:

 From the tower of the astronomical clock which can be seen in the picture above.

 Example of one of the weird sculptures that were everywhere. I really love this one.

 Prague Castle is the biggest in the world according to the Guinness Book of World Records.

 Basilica

 From the top of the basilica's tower.

 Had to climb 287 steps up a spiral staircase to get that view.

 Back on the ground.

Another St. George.


After getting my fill of the sites I headed back to the hostel to pick up my bag and head to the airport once again using Prague's super easy transit system.

I had quite a shock when I got to the airport and my flight wasn't on the board. I asked a Czech airlines person standing around and he said it was on the winter schedule and that flight no longer runs. So I had to go to a special desk to see what was wrong and had to wait for what seemed like forever for a couple in front of me to sort out their cancelled flight to Rome. Apparently they had rebooked my flight for around 2pm without informing me so after a long wait she was able to reschedule me on the flight through Copenhagen instead of Amsterdam and it all turned out better in the end because there was less of a layover and I got home an hour earlier than expected. I have to admit part of me wanted it to be an inconvenience to justify sending a letter into Czech airlines. It may just be a difference in European customer service standards but I wouldn't have hired the girl behind that counter for a CS position. She didn't greet me, there was not a single 'sorry for your inconvenience', or even a parting 'have a nice flight'. When I looked at her after double checking the ticket she gave me a smile but it was of the 'ugh, please go away now variety'. After working in Customer Service for 7+ years I've come to expect more. But oh well, everything worked out better in the end and I arrived safe and sound in Oslo and bought a bunch of chocolate, a couple bottles of wine, and some awesome 50% Finnish peppermint liquor in the Duty Free before collecting my bag. I've been wanting to drink the wine every night since but it'll have to wait til I return to Norway again.
Wednesday morning at 6:40 I'm flying back to Canada for 3 weeks. Hopefully I can get this gorram paper done before then.