The Bad: Monday, while the Roommate and I were driving to school, the brakes to my car went out.

The Good: We weren't going downhill yet. If we had been there would have been some serious trouble as the hill that the Roommate and I live on is very steep. I honestly don't know what I would have done if the brakes had gone after we'd made the turn to go downhill. The only things I can think of trying seem suicidal at best and probably would have ended up damaging the car and injuring the Roommate and I. Seriously, what do you do when gravity is pulling you downhill and there are no brakes? The best thing I can think of is riding the shoulder and trying to pull into a flat side street and, if that failed, hitting a light pole.

The Bad: After getting the car to the side of the road, walking home, finding a tow company, calling the tow truck, and walking back to the car, I was hopelessly late for school and missed my first class.

The Good: The Roommate's first class started at 9AM (my first class was at 8) and the very, VERY nice man at the repair shop forced an underling to take us to school in time for her to make it.

The Bad: Monday and Tuesday the Roommate and I had to walk home. (We took a cab in the mornings... Our excuse was the cost was worth it if we got that extra 30 minutes of sleep.) Monday and Tuesday was also quite cold and damp. Which meant that Tuesday during an Economics exam I started feeling like hell and the feeling only increased during the day.

The Worse: When I picked the car up from the shop Wednesday afternoon, all I could think about was naps. The bill ended up being a little more then I could afford which means budget cuts are in my future (hello ramen noodles three meals a day!) and, worst of all, I found out that I really would have been screwed if the brakes had died while I was going downhill as the parking brake was also dead. How, I don't know. I'm not a car person. All I know is that every brake in my car was dead and I don't even have a past dark enough to claim that someone was trying to kill me!

The Even Worse: Thursday I woke up dead. Or at least I felt dead. The Roommate was forced to drive herself into school as I spent the day in bed wishing that Terry Pratchett's Death would hurry and show up to put me out of my misery. Lordy Lou, even my skin ached.

The (sort-of) Good: Between naps I got pretty close to beating the Professor Layton and the Curious Village game. Apparently illness makes me better at tricky logic puzzles. Go figure. Also, today I woke up and felt not-dead enough to come to school. Where I'm now sniffling loudly and using a public computer. Take that, school anti-illness propaganda!

The Better: I found a new, wonderful, online comic yesterday! It was the only thing that made me laugh hard enough to keel over in a coughing fit, but still be worth it! Check it out, I command ye! 2D Goggles

The News That Makes this Entire Week Worth It: Today I'm supposed to be bringing home my new kitty! The animal shelter has deemed him healthy enough to be released and I'm bringing him home after classes today! The Roommate and I are planning on naming him Pip and I'm SO excited!

Saturday, October 10, 2009

7:06 AM
The cat was kneeding in between my shoulders, meowing, when I awoke. This was a sign, a message saying "feed me before I go to Stage Two." Long personal experience has taught me that Stage Two means extended claws, louder meowing, and the occasional 'affectionate' nip, so I did what any reasonable person did. I got up, shooed the cat into the hallway, closed the bedroom door, and went back to sleep. Bliss.

9:56 AM
I awoke once more, the sounds of the Roommate moving about waking me. It's important to get to the bathroom before the Roommate as her morning rituals tend to take over an hour on cold mornings. And today was a cold morning. Fumbling wildly for my glasses, I scooted out the door, and darted into the bathroom. Bleary eyed, I made some show of waking up and exited. The cat was already there to trip me up as I stumbled down the stairs. We reached the bottom. I glanced up. I screamed.The Roommate came running. She looked and gave a shout of anguish as well. At just 10 AM, our day was ruined without hope of redemption.

The cause? Snow.

Yes, snow.

Dammit! It usually doesn't snow until just before Halloween! This is two weeks early!!!

Exams + Homework + Cold = No time for blog. Sorry.

But here's a hilarious video that Kate made me watch. I laughed until I cried.

Fry finds 'funniest ever' mating ritual

Thank you BBC News! I really needed that laugh!

Sorry for not posting  yesterday's mythology tale. School is getting insanely busy as we move into the first round of exams and I didn't manage to finish the article on Loki.

I thought that I'd be able to get the article up today, but I remembered that my leaf identifying exam is tomorrow so I'll be immersing myself into the wonderful world of Latin words. I don't understand how I'm managing to pass this class so far. I can barely spell in English, how am I spelling Latin words right?

A huge Anglo-Saxon horde of treasure was recently found in a farmer's field. The man who discovered it, Terry Herbert, found it while exploring the field with a metal detector. The horde, with it's 1500 gold and silver pieces, has officially been declared treasure (apparently so it can't leave England) and after the pieces have been appraised Mr. Herbert and the farmer who owns the field will receive a percentage of the treasure's worth as a finder's fee.

I really wish that the US had more civilizations that had gold hordes and that I had a metal detector now...

(Image blatantly stolen from the BBC News website)

(Today's primary sources are The Prose Edda of Snorri Sturluson translated by Jean Young, Myths of the Norsemen by H.A. Guerber, and The Norse Myths retold by Kevin Crossley-Holland. Today's image is 'Odin the Wanderer' by Georg von Rosen.)

Who: Odin (or Wodin), King of the Gods, Leader of the Æsir, the Allfather.

What: Personification of the atmosphere. God of rushing wind, war, wisdom, those who die a noble death in battle, poetry, and those who die from hanging. Creator of all life and runes.

Rules: All of Asgard. His halls are Valhalla where the dead go, Gladsheim where the gods meet, and Valaskialf where he watches all of creation.


In Sturluson's Prose Edda, the King of Sweden, Gylfi, traveled to Asgard in order to find out about these gods he'd heard so much about. Upon arrival he was directed to Valhalla where he saw three thrones stacked one upon the other with a man seated in each. These men introduced themselves as High One, Just-as-high, and Third and proceeded to tell Gylfi everything about the gods in question and answer format. High One, Just-as-high, and Third are supposed to represent Vili, Ve, and Odin. At the same time they only represent Odin. You see, it is very likely that Odin was a triple god with his brothers being aspects of him. For proof of this, most people point to the Lokasenna where Loki attempts to pick a fight with all of the gods at once by airing all of their dirty laundry. When Frigg attempts to hush him he accuses her of having an affair with Vili and Ve. Normally, this sort of rumor would have been devastating for the Queen of the Gods, but no one seems to take any real notice of it. Due to this, people more scholarly then I have said that as Vili and Ve are aspects of Odin, they are also technically the husbands of Frigg.

Odin was described as being an elderly but vigorous man of around fifty years (think of the life expecancy of ages past before you yell at me to say that 50 isn't old) with gray curly hair and a long beard. He dressed in blue and gray, the colors of the sky he represented, and carried with him the spear Gungnir which never missed it's mark. Odin's most striking feature was that he only had one eye, although I don't think it's mentioned which eye was actually the missing one. He lost his eye by trading it for a drought from Mimir's (memory) well. After plucking out his eye and casting it into the well's depths, Odin obtained all of the world's knowledge and wisdom. Odin also created runes, the early Germanic alphabet, by hanging himself over Mimir's well for nine days and night while peering into the well's depths. To do this, Odin was not hung as if he were being executed, but instead was positioned like the Hanged Man tarot card.

The most interesting thing about Odin, to me, was how fond he was of traveling amongst humans. To do so he usually dressed himself all in gray, donned a wide brimmed gray hat so no one would notice his missing eye, and introduced himself as Gangrad to all that met with him. (This is a Tolkien alert to any and all who are interested in how the Grand Master of fantasy came up with his ideas.) Once disguised, he would wander among humans helping those that needed it and punishing those that deserved it. In fact, Odin enjoyed wandering around Midgard so much that at one point all of the gods thought that they would never see him again. Taking advantage of his absence was Vili and Ve who quickly took over and even made Frigg their wife. (Hence Loki's accusation above and the reason why it didn't matter that much.)

Despite being the leader of the gods, there is some evidence that he was not the most important of them. As far as stories go, there are fewer stories about Odin then there are about other deities such as Thor and Loki. In fact, out of all the gods, Thor probably has the most stories about him. Additionally, in the Lokasenna when Loki is insulting everyone in sight it's only when Thor arrives that Loki is put in his place and leaves. Odin had been there the entire time trying, and failing, to quiet him.

Odin was worshipped in many temples, but the most imporant ceremonies were supposed to be held in Uppsala (today known as Gamla Uppsala) where the kings of Sweden ruled. According to Adam of Bremen, an eyewitness from the 11th century, this location was where the trinity of Odin, Thor, and Freyr were worshipped, with Thor sitting on the highest throne. While you can't really trust Adam entirely as he was a Christian missionary in a time when Christianity is trying hard to push it's way north, he is a rare eyewitness in a time when very few written records survive. To Odin, horses were supposed to be the sacrifice of choice, although human sacrifices could be made during times of great need. I've read that once a king had himself sacrificed in order to placate the gods and save his people, but I've never been able to find source that says who this king was or when it happened. The cloest I've ever found to his story was the tale of King Aun of Sweden who sacrificed his nine sons to Odin in order to obtain a longer life. Our friend Snorri reports on this in his Heimskringla and there may be some truth to this tale as, according to Adam of Bremen, nine male animals were sacrificed to the gods at a time. Although in this case, the sons were sacrified one at a time instead of all at once.

Notes: Here's a fun fact for ya! Odin is one of the major sources behind Santa Claus! While the start of the Santa Claus myth comes from Saint Nicholas of Myra, you've got to admit that his being from Turkey doesn't really match up with tales of the North Pole. However, Odin is the origin of the stories of the Wild Hunt, a frightening hunting party that roared through the air on dark nights around the season of Yule. Plus, Odin's horse was the eight legged Sleipnir while Santa has his eight flying reindeer (before Rudolph who is a late addition). Lastly, while in Valaskialf, Odin could see all of creation and what he couldn't see his crows Hugin and Munin went out at saw for him. So, Odin Claus could definately spy on all of the little children to see if they'd been naughty or nice. Okay, at Christmas I'm going to write an entire article to prove this to you!

I also have it on good authority that Gary Corby is a direct descendent of Odin. And by good authority I mean Gary said so. You know that it has to be true, because you saw it on the internet!

Hoist th' mizzen-mast an' swab th' poop deck!

Today be International Talk Like a Pirate Day, ye landlubbers, the greatest day of th' year. Today, th' good lasses an' boys o' th' world embrace the'r swashbuckler nature by goin' onto th' interwebs an' doin' th' greatest o' all things; Talkin' like a pirate. So go ou', bury some booty, an' reckon t' talk like a pirate!