Patrik Olterman
Call to arms!
Read more: Call to arms!The year is 1998 I am standing in front of the town hall in a little town not far from murmansk. In front of me a young man is standing restless eager to join his friends. I am pleading with him to understand that Jesus truly died for his sin and that this is not…
Latvia home of warrior spirit
Read more: Latvia home of warrior spiritOne month in to my newly opened martial arts school, I am amazed at the speed my new students pick up the new techniques. The womens group have grown to 14 (nine if you count the ones that are commited) and the young women are showing alot of promise, they are starting to move like…
Funny hats, visa applications and warrior spirit
Read more: Funny hats, visa applications and warrior spiritIt’s been a long time since I’ve written anything, and it has been a crazy month here in Latvia. So much have happened and we are now literally standing on the edge, ready to take the plunge.The month started with Angelinas Birthday party, we had a hous full of kids and parents, served hotdogs wrapped…
Latvian amazons
Read more: Latvian amazonsSo Last week I started a WSD dojo here in Riga, running two groups every tuesday night one Womens selfdefense group and one regular WSD basic group. I felt I really needed to get started with my training again especially since I have no SCA fencing group here in Riga. But instead of going through…
I don’t know ANY normal people
Read more: I don’t know ANY normal peopleSo after two months in Latvia it turns out that I do not know any normal people at all, everyone I know is….Either working for the salvation army and living in the same building I live in or a member of some charismatic church in Riga. Not knowing the language makes it hard making friends…
First class of the new woman self defense course
Read more: First class of the new woman self defense courseWe had a good class, with a few women showing up, I do wish there would have been more of them. But we got to it and started the long journey towards becoming warriors. A bit sceptical at first, but as we moved on to the actual martial arts techniques, one of the woman exclaimed:…
There’s no place like home
Read more: There’s no place like homeFinally after 2 months of clicking our ruby slippers together we finally have a home… So here I sit on top of a box in our new apartment, a faint smell of paint still in the air and our bed (that was supposed to be delivered today) nowhere to be seen. But still, there is…
Lost and found
Read more: Lost and foundEither what man having plenty of bibles, if he lose one bible, doth not light a candle, and sweep the house, and seek diligently till he find [it]?And when he hath found [it], he calleth [his] friends and [his] neighbours together, saying, Rejoice with me; for I have found the bible which I had lost.…
Bring it on
Read more: Bring it onOk, so we are settling into some semblance of routine, but no matter how we try our life keeps getting interrupted by all these attacks. First the car and loosing all our favorite worship albums (our complete Delirious? collection) Then we all get sick, starts out as a cold but pretty soon it is obvious…
Car trouble
Read more: Car troubleDespite Salvation Army assurance that they never had a break in in their parking lot the second weekend here our car got broken into. This is our second break in since Christmas. This time they drilled up the door so the driver seat lock is completely busted. They stole the car stereo and all our…
Latvian Pizza RoxXorz
Read more: Latvian Pizza RoxXorzOk, enough ranting allready time for some of the good sides of Latvia to show, one of them obviously is the food. So last night we ordered Pizza or Pica as it is called in Latvian due to some language problem apparantly we got a familly size pizza. But it was all well seeing that…
Siberia
Read more: SiberiaJust as we thought we where getting used to the latvian climate the REAL winter kicked in. Hanna and Angelina are both home sick and I am at the office holding on to my health as best I can. The temperatures outside is between -15 and -20 and if you count windchill factors we are…
First week
Read more: First weekBeen here a week now and our accomodations have gone from bad to worse, apart from being very old dirty and alltogether run down the whole church is rented out all the time. This means tha we are awoken by people praying at seven in the morning now if it was taize I guess we…
The kingdom belongs to the children
Read more: The kingdom belongs to the childrenSecond night in Latvia we arrive to our little hideout only to find that a Russian congregation have invaded the church hall and holding a charismatic meeting outside our bedroom door. Angelina decides after a short spell of shyness to join in the meeting. As the meeting is nearing its end people are falling to…
Here we go
Read more: Here we goFour years after our first trip to Latvia we are finally back and ready to get to work. The trip was uneventful, with the ferry between Kappelskär and Paldiski being the lowpoint with cabins that reeked of smoke and previous parties. Now at least we are here The place we are staying is falling apart…
PADI open water diver
Read more: PADI open water diverAfter a week of studies and fantastic dives me and my beloved brother Hampus finally passed the exam and have our PADI – open water diver license. We took the open water diver course and exam with Ivica Zicak at the Resnik dive center. The course was very relaxed and fun oriented so a perfect…
Master Arenvald von Hagenburg now a Dragon Steel
Read more: Master Arenvald von Hagenburg now a Dragon SteelWhat can I say, this guy is one of my heroes. He is a scholar but not the kind that hides behind dusty books, but rather one with a sharp wit and a warm sense of humor. Well done to be added to the Dragon Steel, the order has grown quite muscles thanks to Master…
Love is a mental illness
Read more: Love is a mental illnessThe words of Joan in the fantastic TV show Joan of Arcadia, In the show God counters with “Love puts all logic to sleep, otherwise noone would ever risk it.” Love is such a complicated game, so many risks, so easy to get hurt, and even if the rewards are sky high if you are…
Humpty dumpty…
Read more: Humpty dumpty…We are having a Farscape Marathon at home and watching 2×05 Crackers don’t matter I find myself repeating Crichtons question after he quotes the famous nursery rhyme: “Humptey Dumptey sat on a wall. Humtey Dumptey had a great fall and all the kings horses, all the kings men could nt put Humtey Dumptey back together…
Console fluff with FBsplash
Read more: Console fluff with FBsplashSo you have grown tired of the black and white of the console and need a bit of color to brighten your day. Before Bootsplash would have been your ticket to bliss but the recent rewrite that is now fbsplash is what you should be looking for. This tutorial is made for kernel 2.6.10 and…
Registered name and arms
Read more: Registered name and armsMY SCA persona name and arms have just been registered here Seeing that I submitted them in may it “only” took six months. And they only changed Karl Skarpe to Karl Skarpi, I can live with that ….. Here is my emblazon “Gules, a Paschal lamb passant proper between three crosses crosslet Or.”
Case of rapiers authorization
Read more: Case of rapiers authorizationAt civil wars I went for case of rapiers authorization, hoping to get this one aout of the way as well, still not my favorite style so therefore an SCA authorization again.
Thomas Langland awarded Dragons steel.
Read more: Thomas Langland awarded Dragons steel.Long has he deserved it! And I have lobbied for it since I joined SCA. My mentor, my maestre, my friend! I am proud to be one of his students and proud that he has been given the highest award currently available to a fencer! Thank you John and Honor for listening to a serf…
Howto prepare for LPIC – 1
Read more: Howto prepare for LPIC – 1Preparing to take LPIC – 1 is not a small task and I think the best preparation is lots of experience with linux systems. Books in the stores are often hopelessly outdated, even if the information in the books is correct the LPI exams change as linux grows and change. Set up a linux system…
LPIC – 1
Read more: LPIC – 1After som effort I have finally gotten myself down to our test center at nackademin and written LPIC 117-101 and 117-102 getting myself LPIC – 1. The first test went well with little or no preparation and the second test had me wishing I hadn’t. Since hindsight is 20/20 vision I can say that I…
