Viking musings

I'm sitting here, bored, at work, waiting for the second show of the day, so I thought I'd do some updating on this blog thing I've started. Cool picture huh? Then I realized that I should explain the whole Viking thing.
A long time ago, back in college, I fell in with a group of history buffs called the Society for Creative Anachronism. They recreate the middle ages (years 600-1600), in some semblance of accuracy, for fun and education. In this group, you choose a period, a personna, to focus your studies. I've always loved the culture, so I chose the Norse, 10th Century, the age of exploration and expansion. The begining of their decline. I'm actually only a little bit Swedish, mostly northern German, but I look the part to the T. As a result of more than 20 years of off-and-on-again association with this group, I've become known as a viking in more than a few states (including the state of inebriation). Considering their moral code and honor system, I could have worse role models. I could have been Venetian for example!!
So while I'm currently not active in the group, I still practice many of the arts and crafts I learned in the group. Makes for strange hobbies: Heraldry, calligraphy, chainmail, woodcarving, liqueur making, costuming, etc.