Author: Grey

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Austria

“Traunfeld,” or, “this is a season of The Bachelor waiting to happen”

This is the last of my three posts about what all we did last Friday. Long day, believe me, but a good one.
After we left Klosterneuberg, we cut across the outskirts of Vienna on our way to Traunfeld, a small town in Lower Austria, where we got a tour of a vineyard and winery. This is apparently a traditional trip for the Linfield group, but this year was a bit different – the nice married couple, owners of the vineyard and winery we were touring, were out at a wedding, so their son would be giving the tour instead.1

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Austria

“Klosterneuberg,” or, “once again, wine saves the day”

I mentioned in my post about the Treasury that it was the first in a series of three; this is the second.
After we left the Treasury, we hopped aboard a taxi-van1 and headed out of the city towards Klosterneuberg. The name is an interesting one – you’ve got “neu,” which means “new,” linking together “berg,” a term that in this case refers to a castle being built by the nobility, and “kloster,” which is etymologically linked2 with the word ‘cloister.’ So if you’re going for a verbose translation of the name, you’d get something along the lines of “the new town combining the Church and the State.”3

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Austria

“Treasury,” or, “that’s, like, a thirty-foot tall unicorn”

This past Friday was rather eventful – you’re looking at the first of three posts devoted to the events of one day.
The day began in Vienna, where we walked from the Institute over to the Treasury. Once full of money, now it’s full of a museum. That’s full of probably a billion dollars of gold and jewels. So… not much has changed, actually.

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Austria

“War Museum,” or, “turns out they had hoverboards in 1945”

This first week back is a little crazy – starting up new classes at the University of Vienna is a big hunk of time, but we’ve also got midterms.1 We still have a bit of time for fun, though – on Wednesday, we went and saw a concert at the Musikverein, a beautiful building where I didn’t take any pictures because High Society has some powerful judgement they’ll throw your way if you do that.
But that’s not the subject of this post;2 I’m here to talk about the War Museum that we went to as a class trip on Tuesday.

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Review

"Boundary Crossed," or, "logically speaking that should *either* kill him… or give him immortality. huh."

I do enjoy the writing in this book – I was working on a different one, but it had such clunky phrasing going on throughout that I put it down and started working on this one instead. And I’m happy I did that – it was definitely better-written, and I enjoyed it quite a bit more.
That said, there’s something about the whole “magic exists but it’s a secret” thing that I’m getting very bored of, at the moment. It just feels like, in the Information Age, keeping something that big a secret would be impossible. Nevermind the whole “cover everything up, we’re all in on the conspiracy” thing, but just the idea that you’d be able to keep every bored teenage vampire or whatever from posting selfies of themselves doing something vampiric, or that nobody would ever make a mistake? That’s what pushes the limit of my suspension of disbelief – not the whole “surviving being killed” or “throwing people around with your mind” thing. I dunno, I’ve just got weird priorities when it comes to realism in fantasy.
But once I got past that, I really did enjoy the book – there’s a lot of cool stuff going on with the way magic works in the book, and even more fun than that was the sort of politics being displayed.1 There were a few bits of the plot that I totally wasn’t expecting, and one that I was but was still annoyed by when it happened, but oh well, you win some and you lose some. The main character is an interesting one, and I do think I’ll keep an eye out for the sequel – once I’ve finished the other books on my “to read” list, of course.
tl;dr: I’m not in the mood for this book, really, but I did like it anyways, so give it a go.

  1. Werewolf pack stuff was briefly mentioned, but irrelevant to the story, and I’m kinda hoping that the sequel goes more into that. ↩
Categories
Austria United Kingdom

“Edinburgh,” or, “I've found my One True Love and it is this city”

Well, folks, I’m back in Austria.1 The United Kingdom was a lot of fun, though, and I managed to squeeze in a trip up to Scotland at the end.2 And let me tell you, folks, I am very glad I did – only got a day and two nights up there, but it was definitely enough time for me to absolutely fall in love with the city.
It’s a couple different things, really – thanks to Rebecca and her family, I’ve had a deep love of the Scottish accent for quite a while.3 And secondly, Edinburgh specific, is the fact that it’s an old city in a very different way than any of the other European cities I’ve seen this semester. Vienna has a very distinct architectural style, and as long as you stay in the first district you’ll only see, like, four buildings that don’t match that. Prague’s specific style is enforced by the World Heritage Organization. And I don’t really approve of that – it makes for a nice tourism industry, yeah, but living there, you can get bored of it all pretty quickly.
Edinburgh didn’t have that problem – yes, it’s easy to tell that it’s old and a lot of the stuff has been there for a while, but there’s a sense of freedom to the architecture, and the way it varies, that I just didn’t get from anywhere else. I loved it.4
But hey, time to share the love, and that means pictures.

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Austria United Kingdom

“Trent,” or, “no, you can’t buy a $200 fish-eye lens for a single photo”

This is a quick one, because I find it hard to take photos while shivering1 and I didn’t grab a jacket today. Or on this trip. I only had a carry-on, it’s a bit difficult to pack ten day’s worth of clothes into a carry-on sized bag.
Anyhow, went for a quick jaunt around one of the other parks on the Nottingham campus. Pretty dang photogenic, and less windy than yesterday.2

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Austria United Kingdom

“Nottingham,” or, “Wayne Manor is a five-minute walk from your dorm”

I’m in England this week! Because how many other times in life am I going to have the opportunity to say “yeah, I went to England for Fall Break.” (Probably not many, so I’m grabbing the chance when I’ve got it.)
Anyhow, I’m here visiting Chase, because he’s studying abroad in Nottingham.1
I’m actually not doing a whole lot while I’m here – I tend to prefer to just sit around and work on my own projects, or sit around and be lazy as my ‘vacation’ time. I spent yesterday wandering around the campus,2 and today I’m hoping to find a coffee shop or something where I can just sit around and work on my laptop for a few hours.3
Sunday, though, Chase dragged me to a nearby park to take some photos, because he’s even more of a photography nerd than I am. It was pretty cool, though – turns out that the park has a mansion that served as Wayne Manor in the Nolan Batman trilogy.
What’s that? You want pictures? Alright, I can do that.

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Categories
Austria

“Lower Austria,” or, “kids in the 1920s clearly didn’t have enough to do”

Didn’t actually manage to write this one on the plane, or on the several-hour-long bus ride from London to Nottingham, but oh well. I’m still in the wrong time zone, so I’m up early, may as well do something productive.
Anyhow, this past Friday was another Planned Outing day. We hopped into a van1 that took us out into what I shall affectionately refer to as “the Middle of Nowhere, Lower Austria.”

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Austria

“St. Stephen’s,” or, “wait, how DO you pluralize ‘Jesus’?”

I’m behind and getting more behind, but hopefully I can get some of this stuff written on my flight and get a bit less behind.1
Anyhow, our tour this week was to St. Stephen’s Cathedral, the big ol’ church in the center of town. If you’ve been following along, you’ve already seen a picture of the outside at least once – it’s rather impressive.2
I’m actually going to go a bit out of order for this one. Usually I try to keep everything in chronological order, so the reader can follow along and have a nice sense of immersion.3 This time, though, I’m going to start with where we ended, because I love gothic architecture and I’d quite like to save the best for last.
So, without further ado, the photos:4

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Playlist

Playlist of the Month: September 2016

Definitely writing this a few days early, but it’s not like I’ve never done that before, and I’d rather do it a bit early and need to tweak it than post it late because I was on a plane to England.1
5AM – Amber Run
I Need My Girl – The National
Your Hand In Mine – Explosions in the Sky
Team (Lorde Cover) – Matthew Mayfield
Midnight – Lane 8
Smoke Filled Room (Acoustic) – Mako
SWORD – ΔUGUST
Home (Tim Palmer Mix) – Blue October
Sight – Sleeping At Last
Hearing – Sleeping At Last
Let Me Go – Albin Lee Meldau
Touch – Sleeping At Last
All I Want – Kodaline
Half Light – BANNERS
Be Somebody – Kings of Leon2
Big Jet Plane – Angus & Julia Stone3
Atlas – Coldplay
Ghosts – BANNERS
Shadow and a Dancer – The Fray
9 Crimes – Damien Rice
Wake the Dead – Nassau
Remains (Bastille Vs. Rag N Bone Man Vs. Skunk Anansie) (Crossfaded Version) – Bastille
When The World Sleeps – Lowland Hum
The Fault In Our Stars (MMXIV) – Troye Sivan
I Love You (Quintet Version) – Woodkid
Thinkin Bout You (Frank Ocean Cover) – Midnight Pool Party
Better Man (Feat. Peter Gregson & Iskra String Quartet) – FYFE
Shots Fired – House of Heroes
Kill V. Maim – Grimes
Kusanagi – ODESZA
Roma Fade – Andrew Bird
The Box – Damien Rice
Running Up That Hill – Track & Field4
Fever – Roosevelt
Live in This Moment – Kakou
Little Higher ft. Xavier Dunn – Terace
Ghost, Teacher, Girl, and I – White Violet
Postcards feat. Sam Island – Equal
Folding Hills feat. Xavier Dunn – FØRD5
Gold in the Dirt – DANAE
Stay High – One Room
Summer Heat – Solidisco
All4You – The Palms
Find You – BAYNK
Division – Tycho
Gods in Heat – Tobacco
The City – The 19756
The Void – IAMX
Haunt / Bed – The 1975
Thankfully – White Violet
Prove – DANAE
Two Blue Eyes – Tall Heights
Eternity – IAMX
Umbrellas – Sleeping At Last
The Spring – Sleeping At Last
Trend – Polymath
Hallway – White Violet
Fallingforyou – The 1975
Saturn – Sleeping At Last
Turning Crimson – IAMX
Porcelain – Sleeping At Last
Glory – Bastille7
Where’s My Love – Syml
Dead In This House – IAMX8
Your Mothers Eyes – The Head and the Heart
Lethargy – Bastille
Speed Of Sound – Communist Daughter
Blame – Bastille
Undo – The 1975
Killer Queen – FIL BO RIVA
So Far (It’s Alright) – The 1975
Campus – Bastille
The Currents – Bastille
An Act Of Kindness – Bastille9
Warmth – Bastille
Four Walls (The Ballad Of Perry Smith) – Bastille
Soundtrack To The End – Communist Daughter
Seasons – Klangstof
Woman – The 1975
Doing the Right Thing – Daughter
Worth It – Moses Sumney
Arctic – Sleeping At Last10

  1. Oh yeah, that’s a thing I’m doing on the 1st. Exciting! ↩
  2. I think they’ve got a new album coming out soon, and I am very excited. ↩
  3. I heard a remix of this song in a steampunk-themed restaurant in Prague, and I want to figure out which version it was because I liked it. ↩
  4. Definitely just made someone watch Warehouse 13 the other day, so I’m looking forward to a few weeks from now when they’ll look sad when I play this song. Because how can you not, it was used so well in the show. ↩
  5. The fact that iTunes doesn’t have a metadata field for “featured artist”, or allow multiple entries in the “artist” field really annoys me, and is one of the things I’d add if I were to design a music library management app. Not that this is something I think about doing all the time or anything. ↩
  6. I know I’m way behind to The 1975, okay, you don’t have to tell me ↩
  7. Oh my god their new album is so good ↩
  8. This song always plays at weird times and I’m a little bit worried about what it makes my host-family think of me ↩
  9. Listen to this one with headphones on, they do some fun stuff with panning that doesn’t really come across on speakers. Unless you have an iPhone 7, in which case maybe it will? ↩
  10. Definitely got a bunch of Sleeping At Last music as a birthday present, in case you couldn’t tell by the sudden influx of it here. ↩
Categories
Review

Strictly Analog

I had a big burst of reading the other day and powered through most of this book in one sitting. Sometimes I just need a break from all the German, y’know?
Anyhow, the next book on my reading list was Strictly Analog.1 Reading this one was a bit interesting, because I was caught by the initial setup – the setting is just futuristic enough that I can see exactly how it’d come to be in the real world – but then sorta dropped off for a while. I think that was mostly due to the actual background of the story – it’s set in a version of California that’s controlled by a corporate government2 and, a few years back, declared independence from a crumbling United States. The main character lost an eye in the year of war that ensued, fighting as a troop for California in a bid to annex Las Vegas.3 Basically, it’s a bit more ‘post-apocalyptic’ than I tend to like. That’s kinda how it wound up being cut off my “to-read” list; I wound up putting it back on there by accident, since I picked up my Kindle for the first time in a few weeks and just started reading whatever was already open from last time. Surprise second chance for the book, which worked out pretty well. Back into the story:
The loss of his eye renders him incapable of using Iyz,4 the smartglass-type tech that’s gone as ubiquitous as smartphones are today. Thus the title: he’s “strictly analog” in his work, providing a non-traceable private investigation service for his clientele. I did enjoy the touch about why this is necessary – the CalCore network, containing a massive amount of data on every citizen, is searchable for a small fee. But, once you search for someone, the fact that you’ve done that is made public, and they’ll be notified. So if you’re, say, trying to find out if your spouse is cheating on you? You’d want to be a bit more discreet about that.
Where the story picks up, though, is when Lomax’s5 daughter shows up. Her boyfriend had been acting weird, and her mom is a rather useless character, a riff on the “Beverly Hills” type.
The next morning, things go to hell. The boyfriend was found dead, and Lomax’s daughter was arrested for doing it while he was out working a6 case. Problem: she didn’t do it.
And then things get fun – turns out she met the guy because he works with her stepdad, a higher up in CalCore’s secret police. Instead of a normal trial schedule, she’s due to be arraigned and sent to trial within five days. Someone up high wants the mess cleaned up.
From there, it’s a fun romp. I love some of the other characters who show up later, and despite the rough start I can happily say that I recommend this to anyone who likes a good murder mystery. Have a read.

  1. Actually, looking at my reading list, I’d marked this one as cancelled, something I’ll address later. ↩
  2. Referred to as “CalCore” throughout, it’s short for “California Corporation;” within the story, that happened when an energy company formed CalCore as a subsidiary that, using the awful Citizens United ruling, said the company had the right to run for Governor. And then it won. ↩
  3. They did apparently win that war; I’m sure Nevada wasn’t happy about it. ↩
  4. I think I’m spelling that right, but I don’t actually care enough to check. ↩
  5. The main character, Ted Lomax, whose name I’ve somehow avoided using until now. ↩
  6. generic “yes, your husband is cheating on you” ↩
Categories
Review

The Red Plague Affair

The last Saintcrow book I read I definitely enjoyed, and this one was no different. Definitely more frightening, though, because while the Iron Wyrm included some nice spooky stuff, there’s something about a pathogen that just scares the crap out of me. Probably the relative likelihoods of “death by giant dragon” and “death by disease.”
Anyhow, as with the previous book, the setting is still a gorgeous alternate-history Victorian London. There’s a bit more expansion on how some of the magical stuff works, and some delightfully irritating open-ended bits about some of the history of how these things were created.1
(To be honest, I’m keeping this review rather short because it’s the second book in the series – I linked to my review of the first one as a way to get you to go read that one and then read the first book before you’d read the second.)
There was rather more of a hat-tip to Sherlock Holmes than even in the first – Clare, our Sherlock figure, was given his own Moriarty in Dr. Vance. A seriously fun interaction.
And Bannon, our delightfully immoral sorceress, found herself even more embroiled in politics than before, creating some interesting situations. I’m looking forward to the next book in the series, though it’ll probably be a while before I get to it – my ‘to read’ list is still rather long.
That said, I quite enjoyed the book. If you haven’t read the first, go do that. Once you’ve read the first, read the second as well.

  1. Apparently the levitating Collegia, home of the sorcerous school, was once the top of a mountain, but then someone decided “nah, we want this somewhere else” and just ripped the top off the mountain? so cool ↩
Categories
Austria Czech Republic

“Prague,” or, “Sigmund Freud get down from there you aren’t a cat”

We’re on a bus back from Prague!1 The last three days were spent wandering around the city, taking part in a series of tours where more information than I know what to do with was poured into my brain.2 For the sake of my sanity, I’m going to divide this into a few sections, because after three days I have a solid amount of photos to share.

Day One

The first day, we were up early to catch our bus from Vienna to Prague. And then we sat on a bus for a few hours. Turns out that if you have a T-Mobile plan that you bought in Austria, it doesn’t work in other countries, but if you have a T-Mobile plan that you bought in the US, it’ll work anywhere in Europe. Thanks, T-Mobile, for being a horrible mess. So the bus ride was less productive than I’d hoped.3
But you’re not here to read my complaints about the inexplicable tangle that is international cell phone networks, you’re here for pretty pictures.4 So, without further ado, off we go:

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Categories
Austria

“Schottenstift,” or, “there’s only like 30,000 books on there, I counted”

Our tour1 this week was to Schottenstift, a monastery founded in 1155 by… Irish monks. Yes, Irish, though name does translate as “Scottish Abbey.”2 I finally got myself a locker in the Institute, because last week I was very irritated by carrying around both my camera and my backpack the whole time. Definitely a good investment. Future students: get a locker, they’re useful.
Alright, alright, I know what you’re all actually here to see, the pictures:

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