dr_beowulf

_Sagas of Ragnar_ now listed on Amazon.com

Tue, 07 Jul 2009 01:57:40 GMT

Aaaaaaand this just in:

My first book of saga translations, Sagas of Ragnar Lodbrok, is now listed on Amazon.com. Check it out at http://www.amazon.com/dp/0578021382/.

The book includes the complete Saga of Ragnar Lodbrok, a fragmentary text called the Sögubrot or Saga-Fragment, a short excerpt from a work called the List of Swedish Kings, the complete Tale of Ragnar's Sons, and a long poem called Krákumál or "Words of the Raven". Plus lots of footnotes and a scholarly preface, for those who like that sort of thing -- if not, you can skip straight to the stories; I won't be offended.

Though not all that well-known today, the sagas were a lot of fun to work on, and include many scenes of serious Viking bad-ass behavior. Check it out!

My sister again. . .

Sat, 28 Feb 2009 17:16:13 GMT

My sister got her start playing Irish traditional music, and she still does quite a bit of that. . . but she's quite happy to play songs in the English national tradition as well. Check out her tribute to one of the best-known British traditional ensembles:

http://www.vimeo.com/3302858

Hail!

Tue, 25 Nov 2008 02:20:19 GMT

My exquisitely lovely and fiercely intelligent wife has just successfully defended her master's thesis on medicinal plants used in the Ozarks and Ouachitas. In a few weeks she will graduate with a MS degree.

Congratulations, beloved. You did yourself proud.

Shooting on my campus

Mon, 27 Oct 2008 04:33:31 GMT

There has just been a shooting at the university where my wife and I work. CNN's currently saying there are two dead and one in stable condition, one suspect in custody and three others still at large.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/10/27/arkansas.shootings/index.html

We're both OK -- neither of us was on or anywhere near campus when it happened -- but feeling a little shaken.

Heyyyy ocarina!

Fri, 09 May 2008 00:01:19 GMT

This is. . . well, I'm not sure what to make of this. It's either the dorkiest thing in the universe, or transcendently cool and awesome. Or quite possibly both at the same time.

The gent has lots more videos in the same musical genre.

Hosed hard drive

Fri, 02 May 2008 02:06:55 GMT

Two posts to my LJ in one day?! Da-aaamn. . .

My laptop's hard drive finally gave up the ghost this morning. Repairs are anticipated to take a few days. Until then, I may be a bit slow at responding to e-mails and such. So now you know -- if you've written me in the past two days, or write over the next few days, and haven't heard or don't hear anything back, that'll be why.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled LiveJournal browsing experience.

Fri, 21 Sep 2007 00:13:02 GMT

I lived in Moscow, Russia, between June and December 1993, and visited again in the summer of 1994. This brings back memories. . .

http://www.politov.com/mp3/faina.mp3

This song, by a Russian boy-band called Na Na, was one of the major pop hits of the time; you heard it everywhere. I still can't figure out all the lyrics -- apparently some of them are nonsense syllables. But it brings back a wave of nostalgia, or something, for immediately post-Communist Russia. And it's also one of the most annoying songs ever recorded. Listen at your own risk. Or don't.

Wed, 27 Jun 2007 00:45:56 GMT

OK, let's see how this newfangled "embedding" is done. . . ahh, life was so much easier in the old days of HTML 1.0. . . back when I maintained one of the largest sites on the Web using nothng but UNIX vi. . . all this newfangled stuff they've been coming out with since 1998 is just too unnecessary and confusing and should all be dropped, if you ask me, not that anyone ever does. . . six miles, in the snow, uphill, both ways, and we loved it. . .

Anyway, these are a couple of videos of my entirely-too-talented sister, Beth Patterson.

Tue, 22 Aug 2006 14:44:31 GMT

Surf over to

http://cdbaby.com/cd/johnrbutler

Click on track #5, "The Hand of the Almighty."

No, I do not know the artist; nor am I being paid to plug the product. In fact, based on what I see around Arkansas fairly regularly, I'm not entirely sure that the song is really a parody. Just listen to it. . . and buy many copies of the CD.

Followin' the herd. . .

Wed, 09 Aug 2006 21:00:30 GMT

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the next 3 sentences on your blog along with these instructions.
5.Don’t you dare dig for that "cool" or "intellectual" book in your closet! I know you were thinking about it! Just pick up whatever is closest.
6. Tag five people.

"During its passage through the gonopore, the capsule becomes coated with the adhesive secretion of the cement glands, and this secretion may be drawn out into a stalk fastening the capsule to an object. During the breeding season, each worm usually copulates repeatedly and lays a succession of capsules, one at a time, at intervals of a few days. These hatch in a few weeks to complete tiny worms; free-swimming larvae only occur in some polyclads."

-- Hyman, L. H. 1951. The Invertebrates. Volume II: Platyhelminthes and Rhynchocoela, The Acoelomate Bilateria. McGraw-Hill, New York.

I'm sure that all of you are just happy to know that.

Wed, 05 Jul 2006 13:18:44 GMT

While this America settles in the mould of its vulgarity, heavily thickening to empire
And protest, only a bubble in the molten mass, pops and sighs out, and the mass hardens,
I sadly smiling remember that the flower fades to make fruit, the fruit rots to make earth.
Out of the mother; and through the spring exultances, ripeness and decadence; and home to the mother.
You making haste haste on decay: not blameworthy; life is good, be it stubbornly long or suddenly
A mortal splendor: meteors are not needed less than mountains: shine, perishing republic.
But for my children, I would have them keep their distance from the thickening center; corruption
Never has been compulsory, when the cities lie at the monster's feet there are left the mountains.
And boys, be in nothing so moderate as in love of man, a clever servant, insufferable master.
There is the trap that catches noblest spirits, that caught – they say – God, when he walked on earth.

-- Robinson Jeffers, "Shine, Perishing Republic"