Working is better again

I am so full that it is crazy. Seriously, I look like I was five months pregnant. Yargh.

We had lunch with T in the Chinese place nearby. It's been awhile, since I have had Chinese. It's been four years and some since I've been in that particular place. Yep, I like Chinese.

T gave his presentation today and I went to watch. The woman who talked to me last time came to talk to me again and we finally settled on a date of my presentation. End of November, which means that I still have some time to write it. She suggested that I would concentrate on methodological questions and problems with the archive material - maybe use a case study for it. Sounded good to me. I mean it's not like I don't have problems with the archive material. I have to think about it soon, because maybe I could come up with something that I could use in Copenhagen too. If I can't, I'm not sure that I will be going.

I borrowed Thunander's book today - Hovrätt i funktion. I think I have read that book already like three times, but I still couldn't remember any of it. I was hoping he would have a clear structure in the book and I could do something very similar. You know, to figure out what people think is interesting about the functions of an appeal court. I can use some of it, but most of his questions are so 17th century and criminal law specific that it probably won't really work with my material. Darned too.

It did get me to write about the hemställte mål. Have been writing until now. But I am again just making charts and writing the cases instead of really saying anything. Maybe I should just read Thunander first and then see what is important about them anyway.

I think I have to go write a wee bit of fiction now. Yesterday was the second day when I didn't write at all and I can't make it two days in a row. One day is okay, but two days are a beginning of a habit and this is something that I really don't want to give up.

Currently listening to: Gjallarhorn - Norafjelds

Need sleep

Gosh, I am tired.

Today was a good day. T from Helsinki is here for a week and we went out tonight to have dinner. The local places didn't look all that promising, so we headed downtown and had pizza near St. Paul's. Afterwards we walked around downtown for a while and then had a beer in the local football club's bar near the institute. That was a cute little place in the end of a narrow dark road, just us and a couple of local men and a few guys outside playing football. It was all much, much fun.

I have to say that using a language that one can actually speak is a wonderful thing. And it is even better to use that language talking with someone who really listens, is genuinely interested in what you have to say and doesn't judge. There aren't too many people like that in the world. Although perhaps more than I used to think.

Hmmm, I've really been brainwashed by school years to expect the worst of people, haven't I? I should listen to those existentialists, shouldn't I? Everyone creates the meaning of their own existence. If it is about a choice, can I not choose to believe that people want good? Choose not to be defined by the past.

I hope it is so easy.

Yep, people are the worst thing in life, but they are also the best.

One shouldn't drink wine - or should one?

Have you noticed how sometimes when you need something or would like to do something, that something just falls in your lap? Like last Monday when I wanted to find a hobby shop, I took a road I usually don't and there it was. I think it was yesterday when I started to think that it would be again time to find out what was going in the world, maybe buy a paper and read it in a cafe. So what happens when I stand outside the old opera house today checking the programme? A girl comes and asks if I would like to have a copy of the Welt am Sonntag, for free. Yes, thank you, I would like one very much!

Promo action of course and if the paper could actually be delivered to the institute I might have even subscribed. But as it was I just sat for two hours or more in the park near the opera house and read the paper. That was good. The sun shone again and it was warm even if I only had a t-shirt on. The paper was long and had some interesting articles about Putin's Russia and religion and literature. The famous Frankfurt book fair starts next week, so they were reviewing some of the books: some critic campaigning rather shamelessly for his favourite, which was actually quite funny.

Yeah, but it was great. Couldn't help thinking how nice it would be to do that regularly. Buy the morning paper and sit in a cafe somewhere reading it, with no hurry to go anywhere... I went to the Tapas place again after reading the paper to have an Alster and a Fajita - read some Toni Morrison and enjoyed the smile and the tattoos of that handsome waiter - and did some calculations. If I rented out my apartment, I could live for about year on my savings. Less if I did some proper traveling and enjoyed life. More if I get all the money I still have coming from different sources and if I live cheaply. If I were to sell my house the number of those years would be at least four and living cheaply a few more....

I have been spoiled, haven't I? I am 33 and I have worked in a "9 to 5" job for less than a year of my entire life. It is starting to sound so dreadfully horrible to me. Going to work every day, living in some horrid suburb and doing the "normal, bourgeois" life... I'm sure it is the dream for many, but I wonder if I am not ready to leave it behind.

I'm already thinking of it, you see. Living in Finland during the summer - I love Finnish summer - in the summer house and you know where, but spending the winters away, except for X'mas. (Oh, and just as a side note, good GRIEF how LOUD the sounds are, when you have had a couple of glasses of wine. Just pulled a piece of paper from the bag and it rattled like it was the thunder god itself. Not that I am drunk or anything...) The autumn in Europe maybe, when it is still warm enough and then at least to Spain - not that it isn't Europe - or to India. I am still thinking of India. I can't find the site now, but it was possible to live in Goa for a month for something like 200 euros.

Don't you think it would be wonderful? I still think it would be great. It also sounds a bit scary, but people do it all the time. And I think it is better also to do scary things than to just die of boredom. Of the utter meaninglessness of it all. I want to LIVE. It is better than to suffer depression and work in a boring job for forty years and then ultimately die rich and leave all your money to great-great-nephews and nieces, who have hoped for your death for the last twenty years.

It is of course also what some people call selfish, but the ultimate fact is that we only have one life. We can get stuck in our routines and hate our lives - or we can do something about them and change them. It is scary and there is no guarantee that it will get better, but is that a reason not to try. Hmm, yep, what can we learn of this. Wine is good and I hope - I hope beyond hope - that I have the courage to fulfill these dreams when the time comes.

Currently listening to: Eisbrecher - Kein Mitleid

Darmstadt

The destination of today's travels was Darmstadt. Not a bad place to visit, but also not somewhere you would absolutely have to go. It takes awhile to get from the railway station to the city centre and the walk isn't particularly impressive. Darmstadt is also very good at hiding it's tourist info. I walked around for over an hour before I finally found it. I had, you see, gotten into my head that I absolutely needed a map before I could relax and start enjoying the scenery. And once a girl gets something into her head, it stays there. So I walked around, got increasingly annoyed, spent extra energy trying to remember where I had come from and finally decided to give up. I went to a store to get some food and decided to head to a nearby park to eat and read, when I finally stumbled upon the info.


I got myself a beautiful map and immediately the day brightened up. I was again safely in control of my surroundings and free to wander wherever I wanted. I still headed to the park, since by now I was carrying a bottle of cola and some schockobrötchen. I sat down, I ate - far too much - and studied the brochures I had got; even if only to find out that the most interesting museum had closed already at 1 o'clock. So I used the bag as a pillow and decided to finish de Beauvoir's book. It's very good and I can only recommend it highly. I recognised myself in so many things she says. I've never read anything of hers before, but I have to correct that mistake. I do feel drawn to both feminism and existentialism after all.


Afterwards I walked around a bit in the park, saw one church and quickly peaked in. I think they were about to start a wedding ceremony there, so I didn't linger. I headed back to the railway station and just made it to the 5 o'clock train - or U-Bahn to be more accurate. A middle aged couple who kept bantering and flirting with each other sat down next to me and kept me amused for most of the journey - not that I was really listening, but it was impossible to avoid.

Yep, not a bad day all in all.

Currently listening to: Maija Vilkkumaa - Saaressa

Sugar high

I have done battle with a bee and emerged victorious. It was warm earlier today and I got an uninvited and an unwelcome quest in through an open window. I didn't kill it right away, since I was just leaving out to town. When I came back it was already dark and so instead of buzzing at the window, it was doing long-distance flying around the room. Bees can be tolerated outside, but I don't want to share my bedroom with one, so we had words and it ended up in the trash can. Rest in peace, little bee.

Today was work wise the first good day of the week. If only they could all be like this one... I had fun again and actually enjoyed reading Weitzel - even if I still didn't get everything he was on about. Sometimes I think my German is just getting worse, because I don't really use it all that much.

After work I went to town to buy a new monthly travel pass. I decided to walk there, which turned out to be fun. The city centre is even closer than I thought and it only took an hour to walk there. I might want to do that again sometime. After getting the monthly pass I decided to do some more walking and headed down to the river. I sat down for a moment to watch the people and the airplanes and then headed out to find a yet untried U-Bahn station.

Yep, it was fun and I should go out to town more often during the week. It is just that I can't always come up with things one could do there. Going to sit at a cafe every evening becomes routine eventually and kills the fun of it. And new places become old places far too quickly. Maybe I'll just have to start going through the different suburbs one by one.

Currently listening to: Don Huonot - Olemme kuin veljet

Unitie

Well, today was the Day of German Unification. Which I didn't realise until just before noon, when an e-mail reminded me of this fact. Did I feel the need to head out to town to see how the Germans celebrated this festivity? No, not really. I did plan to do that later, even checked to see if there was something going on downtown, but then the time just flew.

I did use this as an excuse not to work. It would not be a very nice to commemorate the occasion by working, would it? No, so I promptly stopped working and spend the day writing e-mails instead. That's sort of appropriate, isn't it? Unity through letters...

Äh, I really should have gone out. Too late now.

Currently listening to: Rammstein - Spiel mit mir

Work progresses

Today, well, today was one of those days when I didn't get much done.

The day's biggest accomplishment was probably deciding that I would try and finish the dissertation from a general functional point of view. I had thought that I would concentrate on reading this week, since I had just played around with the existing text for couple of weeks. Reading however didn't want to get going at all. Not at all, so I thought that it would be better to finally do some decisions about the dissertation. Then I know which books I still absolutely have to read and what kind of information I'm looking for anyway. Well planned is half done and all that.

So I went and printed out the pages with the contents. I had some sangria and stared at the contents long enough to come to the conclusion that the only thing that the last pages have in common has something to do with the functions of the court. You know, efficiency and control and providing better jurisdiction and authoritative decisions and who knows what. If I mix up everything that I have thus far and shove them to whole new chapters...if I add some to the part about the court's establishment...then I think I may be able to keep most of what I have now - albeit in a different form - and even make it work. It won't be good, but it will get finished during the next year and that is the most important thing.

Now I will go write something fun. I think I left them at the table and Alcis had just come in from the stables...

Currently listening to: Rammstein - Mein Teil

Good Monday today

Today I very strongly felt that it was time to do something real. When you spend too much time just writing and reading for work and then writing and reading some more for fun, you eventually realise that too much is too much. Or at least that sometimes you need to do other things too. Since there is the cleaning lady around, I'm almost down to doing the dishes for any physical labour these days.

There were no gardens around or houses to paint, no fires to start or metal workshops to enroll for, so I had to settle for what I could think of. I baked an apple pie earlier and then later I headed out to town and went to buy some supplies. I made a short stop in a nice Spanish cafe, got served by a rather nice looking waiter, had a lemon beer and some tapas and sat there reading Simone de Beauvoir again. It was very lovely. I spent a moment thinking of the foremothers of hundred years ago and how much more opportunities to see the world I have than they did. Yeah, I really like this German experience.

Then I came home and did some playing around with glue, scissors, paper and coins. I made myself a little tealight-holder and then threw the paper clippings and some thread on a piece of paper just for some artistic affect. The tealight-holder is now being tested to see if it actually works or if it will heat the coins too much. The clippings and paper thing is not any kind of masterpiece by any standards, but it is also partially functional since the thread is capable of holding little notes. I think I may experiment some more later and see if I couldn't make something better.

I've decided to embrace all my artistic sides, you see, and try to get rid of the rational me. This also involves going out with my hair tied back and in my dad's old zip sweater. It got the waiter to flirt with me, so apparently it works much better than the lawyery sort of jackets.

Currently listening to: Diary of Dreams - Soul Stripper

In exile

I have been banished into exile again. It´s a cleaning day and I don´t like to be in the room when the cleaning lady comes.

I spend two hours every morning transcribing the court cases and I´ve come to the conclusion that my cases won´t speak to me. They have never really spoken to me. Or rather when I hear of Daniel Pekuri heading to the fields in the morning and bunching Anders Pekuri in the presence of numerous witnesses, I want to know why. When I read of Andres Aulin with his criminal past being involved as the only witness for the prosecution in a number of cases of illegally manufacturing alcohol, then I want to know why. Has he become an honest citizen like the prosecutor claims - the prosecutor who is getting two thirds of the fines - or is he rather making up tales to bring rewards to himself. I want to know who these people were and most importantly what made them do all those deeds. What did they think and what was their world like. I want to know their stories.

But considering anything that vaguely resembles a reasonable, legitimate legal historical viewpoint, the cases just don´t want to tell me anything. Everything they whisper to me, has been written already by another pens. Except for the stories of these people they won´t speak of anything that would be truly fascinating or interesting.

Wetzlar

Today's travels took me to Wetzlar. If you are ever hereabouts and have any interest in places historical, go there! Very, very beautiful. Just don't let yourself be scared by the train station or the entrance to the town. Before you reach the old town you have to go through a shopping street, which makes you wonder if you've made a big mistake and come to a typical 70's town.

 But it's all just a cover, because then you go around a corner and voila! There's the river Lahn in all it's beauty and you can see that behind it there's the whole old town just waiting to be discovered.

 It's a beautiful place with lot's of houses from the 17th century and earlier. You have some of the feel of Middle Ages with the cobbled streets and narrow passages. It reminded me of Stockholm and Visby and even some of the Italian towns. There were cafes and bistros in every corner and the place in general had a very lived-in feeling. For awhile when I came I thought I would have the place nearly to myself, but the old town just bloomed during the day.












I walked around for some time, saw the obligatory cathedral and went to have lunch in a local place. There I dug out the brochures that I had gotten from the local tourist info and thought I would go see some of the museums, which seemed really very interesting. They were closed between 13-14 so I had to do some more walking around in the meantime.



I discovered for instance the house where the Reichskammergericht had sat. That was the highest court in Germany - or the Holy German Roman Empire - from 1495 to 1806 and was situated in Wetzlar since the late 17th century. There's a cafe these days in the building. It was a nice looking place, but fairly small and unimpressive for a supreme court. Not at all what I would have imagined. One of the museums that I was planning to go was the Reichskammergericht-museum.






The operative words being "was planning" since during the hour that the museums were closed I decided to go and see the ruins of this old castle, which was from the times of 12th century and Frederick Barbarossa. The ruins were on an high hill and going there I started to wonder whether this was a great idea after all. Sweaty business - but by Frederick's red beard was it worth it.




There was this old watch tour or some such thing, from where you could see the whole town and surroundings. The view was absolutely amazing, but unfortunately the pictures don't do it justice at all. It was just gorgeous. The ruins themselves were quite nice too and going down the pathway from the castle, you could easily imagine the clobbering of the horse's hooves on the stones.





The sun god was again most kind to my travels and I spent at least two hours just laying by the tower - drowsing and reading a magazine. Can you imagine how perfect that was? There was an occasional tourist there now and then, but mostly it was just these old, old ruins high above the city, birds, buzzing bugs and me. And sun, magazine and then later Simone de Beauvoir's "Marcelle, Chantal, Lisa...". Life doesn't get much better.

Artsy stuff

It was too gray and cold today to go exploring new towns, so I went to the art museum instead. It was perhaps a bit smaller than I had thought, but there were some great pieces there: lovely portraits and landscapes by the usual old names and a few really nice ones by Emil Schumacher, who definitely knew how to use colours.

On my way to the museum I saw a nice little flea market. Germans seem to be crazy for flea markets and fairs and street festivals. I run into one nearly every time I just step out of the house. Lot's of the vendors do come from somewhere else though. One of them took me for a Russian and called "Good day" in Russian after me. One of the very few things I still remember in Russian.

And now, if you'll pardon me, I have to finish my game of solitaire.

Currently listening to: Marilyn Manson - The Beautiful People

Musik und Literatur

I decided to buy tickets to the Subway to Sally concert too. They are playing near here in November and I'm really liking what I'm hearing. Medievalish Metal or some such thing. I was never good with labeling musical genres. Who cares what it is called as long as it sounds good, right?

I finished reading the dissertation today. I threw away ten pages more and came to the conclusion that the final 150 pages or so really are an incredible mess. I have to come up with some magical trick that allows me to turn them into something faintly resembling sensible. It also has to be something that can be done quickly. No one reads dissertations anyway. And if the next book I want to write has more to do with the mystical, magical fantasy worlds of the ancient Rhuathia then it hardly matters anyway what this one turns out to be like.

Currently listening to: Subway to Sally - Die Ratten

Strange dreams

I love writing - truly, truly love writing. No matter how crappy day I have had, I just need to sit on the computer and write for a couple of hours and I feel like life is absolutely heavenly. I love the current story - reading is not the only way to transport you into different worlds, writing works just as well.

Yeah, I just needed to share that with someone. I'll go dream some crazy dreams now.

Heute haben wir Donnerstag

I've been trying to learn some German again today, but I don't know why the words and prepositions just won't stick to my head. Maybe I'm using too many languages at the same time. Swedish for the cases, Finnish for writing, English here and the net, both of the latter for thinking just in general... Some days I just don't need German at all.

I did today, since I finally went to the Bürgeramt to register. You are apparently supposed to go and let the official folks know your address every time you move - and in the case of foreigners they also sent the info onwards to some other official folks. For the people from the old EU countries it is very easy and they didn't even want to see any of the papers the institute told me to take along.

After that I went to the local Saturn again to do some shopping. I am now a happy owner of CD's from Apocalyptica, Subway to Sally, Diary of Dreams and Marilyn Manson. Yay.

Yep. It's been raining all day long and the autumn is finally clearly on its way. I think I'll go light some tealights now. Some tea might not be bad either.

And then I will again write some.

Music, work and writing

I have to go and buy Apocalyptica's new album, I think. I've been listening to Helden now over and over for two days. It's a David Bowie cover featuring the singer from this German band called Rammstein. Very, very lovely.

Yup, but today I have been working again pretty much all day long - in addition to listening to some music and going out for coffee with J. For a moment there earlier I felt like deleting all of the darling dissertation, since it seemed like such a load of complete bollocks. In the end I only ended up throwing away some fifteen pages, which probably was in a long run a much better solution. I have now gotten rid of altogether nearly 45 pages, but by some miracle I have still got 297 left. I must have created a huge number of new headings, since there is no way I have written nearly forty pages of new stuff.

Still a few more days and then I have gone through all of it for the first time. There is still so much that needs to be added that it's almost scary. I mean, I basically haven't even started going through the most important sources yet! The other solution of course is getting rid of some more stuff; even with the 45 pages thrown away I still have far too many things that just don't want to play with each other like good children. Hmmm, there may actually be a way, even if it does mean throwing a LOT away and writing the beginning anew from a different perspective - once again. Less ambitious, but it would certainly speed things up... Plus didn't I already decide that sometimes there is beauty in simplicity.

Jep, hmmm, just thinking out loud here. I really have to think about that.

I think I'll stop working now. It is already eight o'clock and I think I want to write some. I abandoned my story that I started two weeks ago and started a new one on Sunday. One has to know when to kill one's darlings after all. This one is more fantasy-based, since I realised that I have to write what I want - not what I think I should. I have eight pages already and it flows so much better than the earlier one.

ejfgep bhue

Where do the hours go? It seems that the days go by so fast and I have time for nothing. I take back for example everything I said about the letter writing habits of the folks of old.

It also doesn't help keeping hold of time, if one doesn't concentrate on the thing at hand. Like now it sprang to my mind, that I haven't followed any news in the past couple of weeks or so. I went to google a few news sites, toasted some bread while at it and fifteen minutes later I had managed to complete forgot that I was actually penning down this daily report here. Tschk, tschk.

On the other hand that really tells me that I don't have much interesting to report today. So, I bid you farewell until to-morrow.

Alternate universes

How great would it be if you could get up every morning and start writing fiction? Go out for a swim or run or some other sporty stuff, which you now don't seem to have the time for and then head out to a cafe somewhere to write some more. And when you no longer feel like producing stories, you just dig up a book to see what others have come up with. And all of this perhaps some place where winter is an unknown concept.

When I was little I used to read all these adventure stories: I started with Enid Blyton when I was seven or eight and then progressed to read all the Tarzans and Mars books, Zorros and westerners, James Fenimore Cooper and Jack London and Zane Grey. I loved space movies and westerners and was terribly annoyed when I wasn't allowed to watch some of them in the age of ten. I dreamt of a life of adventure somewhere in the jungle or wild west or the outer space. I had a terribly wild imagination and all manner of imaginary worlds sprung up around me after I found a "magical" stick on a walk once; we were at my grandparents' house and I was eight years old.

They have been there ever since, my magical worlds, but somehow I have banished all the adventure from my real life and relegated it into this magical realm where everything is possible. I suppose the question is how much magic one can bring from that other world into this.

One thing is sure, I never dreamed of being a lawyer when I was little. A lawyer - I think - would have been the first to have been sacrificed by the beasts of Opar or thrown out of the Santa Fe train with his books clattering behind him. A researcher might have been tolerated, but that bespectacled figure with his nose in the books would have at most been an amusing side-kick. But what about being the god behind it all, the one who spins it all and wrecks it all, creates it all with just of few tiny clickety clicks of the fingers....

Life is good

I practiced my German this morning and for a moment I thought of staying home to clean and write e-mails. Luckily I didn't, because I ended up having a very nice day. It was again incredibly warm - a total summer feeling. I was planning to go to a famous art museum called Städel and walking there along the river, since it was so beautiful.


When I got to the river though, there were a bunch of people lining up for a cruise. So on a spur of a moment I decided to join them. 100 minutes up and down the Main with the sun shining like summer was never going to end. It was nice.

Afterwards I decided to leave the museum for another day and saw some more of Frankfurt. Mostly roman remains - again - and churches - again. There is a lot to see in Frankfurt too.

Then I went to have a piece of apple cake in a nice Italian cafe along one of the main touristy "boulevards": sun shone, street performers kept us entertained and I dug up my notebook to do some more writing.

When I had sat there long enough for the waiters to start hoping that I would move along, I went to sit by the main square and continued the writing. I wrote and watched the tourists and a guy selling pretzels from an old-fashioned cart. It was again all very, very good.

Now I am sitting here and listening to a great new band called Gevolt. They are from Israel, they play something they choose to call Yiddish Metal and some of their songs sound a lot like Rammstein. This here is a band that might make it even to my top three of favourite bands.

Wiesbaden

The traveling continues. Today I've been to Wiesbaden, which is a bit further than Mainz. That doesn't sound awfully tempting: Wiesbaden - at least to my mind that brought nothing but thoughts of industry and cars. Not that they have anything to do with Wiesbaden as such, but it just sounded like that kind of town: industry and cars. But no, Wiesbaden was quite beautiful and well worth of visit.



It was almost as old as Mainz and also boasted relics from the Roman times. That one above was supposed to be part of an old wall from the 4th century. The bridge though is a much later addition. There were also a number of churches in Wiesbaden. I sat in one for about half an hour listening to a weekly organ music concert. Not too bad, but I have to say that organ music still doesn't make it to number one on my list. Plus those church benches really enjoy their role as torture devices.



In Wiesbaden I also came across something that I've thus far only seen in Island. A hot spring. Not a geysir, but a hot spring, which in this case had been directed to bubble through this fine piece of art you see on the right. It may have been captured, but the water steamed and smelled of rotten eggs just like in Island.



There was also a group doing a choreographed "stick-dance", which reminded me of Robin Hood. The part, you know, where Little John and Robin Hood meet and proceed to beat each other to pulp, because they have issues of honour and stubbornness. I'm sure this "old martial arts turned into sports" has a proper name too, other than a stick dance. It looked quite fun actually.



Wiesbaden also had some lovely parks. The weather in honour of the weekend was again above 20, so there was nothing to stop one from enjoying the said parks. This one was next to a nice looking theatre and quite close to the local casino, which was also in an old fancy building. Already Dostojevski for instance had apparently tried his luck there. Wiesbaden had predominantly a look of an 19th century town with lots of houses that were nearly in palace-class. Queen this and Emperor that had stayed in a number of them. And yes, that is a tiny house in the middle of the lake.

In the park (that's the theatre on the background by the way) there was some sort of an autumn fair going on. There were some farm animals for the children to look at, pumpkins and decorated hay bales on display and again people selling everything from fruits to sun flowers, tractors to local wines. I bought an example of German sausage - bratwurst - and proceeded to do comparisons with the Finnish kind by the lake. German sausages - at least of this type - are nearly white and look a little weird, but are quite nicely spiced and really very good.



Yep, but that was Wiesbaden. Not a bad place at all. Worms, Wetzlar and Heidelberg are perhaps the next places on the list to go. They are a bit further away, but still within an easy distance. I also just booked a three day trip to Venice in November. Hehe. Frankfurt is just a teeny bit closer to places than Helsinki with the predictable results in prices, so one just has to go see things.

Stories in the past

Do you know what is by far the best part about research? Going through the archive records and analysing them. Quantitative analysis is usually particularly fun, but qualitative can be good too. Analysing original written documents can be major fun as well.

Those are the sort of things that can get you to the flow. Like now I look at the time and realise that it is almost seven. More than three hours have gone just like that and I don't even feel any need to stop.

Too bad that the analysing part isn't precisely the scientific one. Or isn't necessarily. It rather depends on the questions of course. If this darling "dissy" of mine would be about historical basic research, it might actually be considered quite decent.

I wish reading the books would be fun too. But most of them are just so frigging boring. There are really books that have literally put me to sleep after two pages. Of course there are fun books too. I borrowed one today, which I'm expecting to be good. Miller's book on Feuds, Law and Society in Saga Island. That book has people in it, destinies and fates. It has stories. I suppose I have mentioned before that I need concrete events and people for things to be interesting.

Perhaps that is why I enjoy analysing the archive records and the documents. There is Gustavus III talking with all of his desires and dilemmas; there is the young judge Stenman making mistakes and arguing questions of precedence with the local nobility; the peasant Matts Andersson so horribly morally upset because his niece's husband has got him mingled in an expensive law suit. The peasants who seek justice in matters of land use and crime, the priests getting tangled in questions of procedure and execution, merchants seeking their claims...

There are stories. There was one I read this week, about a crofter whom his landlord wanted to evict without paying him compensation for all the work he and his father had done. It was like an 18th century version of Väinö Linna's "Under the North Star" - with the appeal court defending the crofter's rights against the abuses of the lower court and his landlord. That was a wonderful story, but what does it have to do with legal history? Not terribly much.