A few weeks ago, we made an order for something that feels like an everyday adventure to me: We subscribed for an organic produce box. A smallish company in our region offers home delivery every week, with an assortment of fruits and vegetables, organically produced - and you can even opt for regional vegetables only, which leaves you with truly seasonal food.

I love this box. First of all, there's less grocery shopping to be done: We still buy the few things we use in larger quantities, potatoes and occasionally onions, at our normal grocery store. But the big deal about shopping for fruit and vegetables, for me, was always choosing. Having to decide between produce that was grown locally or imported in - or between buying imported food or nothing at all, in some cases. Then choosing what to get. The things well-known, with the preparation down pat? Or something else for a different taste (that might not please)? Since I am one lazy bugger, I ended up on the familiar grounds most of the time.

That is now a problem of the past.

While you can opt out for some of veggies or fruits you don't like, the subscription box will arrive, and there's probably something new in it from time to time - just what I had wished for. They even add a sheet of paper with information and a recipe suggestion for the more exotic things. Before the box, I was looking for recipes in the internet to get inspiration on what to buy. Nowadays, I'm just googling the main vegetable ingredient I want to use and browse through the hits until I find something that sounds appealing. Which has added a touch of adventure to cooking - exactly what I had hoped for. And there is much difference between "not buying something" and "canceling an order for something" - though I usually check a week before what we will get. (Because I'm also very, very curious.)

Is it cheap? No. Our grocery bill has gone up significantly with the box - but so has the amount of fruit and vegetables consumed. And the quality of the foods way surpasses what we can usually get, each and every single piece. There's even a refund should something have gone bad inside, unnoticed by the handlers.

Is it convenient? Well, yes and no. Yes, because the time spent in grocery stores, produce aisles or farmers' markets is cut down to or close to zero. On the other hand, you have to be there when they deliver or have an arrangement, perhaps with a neighbor to receive the box for you (and hand back the empty one).

Is it worth it? In my opinion: Totally. Which is why I write about it here (instead of about medieval garments like I'm supposed to).

I've been wondering a long time now about the differences in the writing guidelines in Germany versus those in other (English language) countries.

Did it ever strike you as curious that in the English language, the length of texts (maximum or minimum) is given in words - as in "this novel is complete at 100,000 words", while German regulations for submission are given in characters - as in "no more than 40,000 characters"*.

And so I find myself writing a short and a long text with character count "not more than" in both cases and I wonder why there is that difference. After all, there are long and short words in both languages, and I'd suspect that when the difficulty level of the text rises, so does the average word length. So why count words? Is this better possible in English than in German? Or is it some "historical reason"? Or do the Germans just want it that much more exact?** And why does MS Word include a character count, but not a (complete) word count when that is needed much more often (since there are much more English language writers than German)?***


And, the most important question of them all: Why did I not manage to get my characters counted properly yesterday, in spite of having used "Extras - Word Count" so often before?



*I'm not using the proper German 40.000 here, to avoid confusion - but I think it is funny that 40.000 and 40,000 mean different things in English and German. Talk about confusing.

** Yes, I know, that is so cliché. But did you know that because listing these huge numbers of characters for a text can be daunting, there's a conversion into "Normseiten", standard pages, that are usually worth about 1.500 characters. Which makes those figures much, much smaller.

*** You can of course download and install an add-in for MS Word. It might be useful for you (I only have it for fun - well, mostly). You can find "Complete WordCount" at Shauna Kelly's site - together with a lot of hints for using Word efficiently.

I am spending way too much time staring at my newsletter program (it's Birdigee's Newsletter Manager, by the way). The newsletter campaign I started exactly one week ago is coming along extremely well, and my webpage has never before seen so many people - you are all really amazing!

I have received additional mails with helpful hints, and I have also gotten requests for the table of contents. I'm looking into all of them, and I am happy to announce that I have just uploaded not only the "Inhaltsverzeichnis" (TOC), but also a snippet of the text as preview. So if you would like to have a peek into my (German language) book about medieval garments and tailoring techniques, click over to my webpage and see for yourself if you might want a copy once it is out. And if you do so, please subscribe to the newsletter to let me know!

Now as promised, the problems I have with this version.

First of all, the kruseler. It consists of multiple layers (I think eight layers) of fine silk fabric, woven in tabby. It's the thin quality you can buy for painting scarves, Pongé 05. The "ruflles" consists of the selvedges of the fabric. All cut edges are sealed with beeswax.
The ruffle, to me, does not look voluminous enough. This might be due to not enough layers, or it could be possible to seal/impregnate the edges in the ruffle with (bleached) beeswax and form it, still warm, into the characteristic wavy form. The next one will be better, I hope.

Then, the hairdo. I am pretty content with how it looks on the photos (though the right "horn" has uncoiled slightly), and it is actually comfortable to wear once it is arranged symmetrically and fixed securely. And that is the snag. I find it enormously difficult to do the two lumps of hair, both securely, both similarly tight and starting from the right spot. Then these two horns have to be pinned to the head. I have a lot of experience nowadays with the simple, u-shaped pins that have been used in the middle ages (and are still available today, thanks to the powers that be), but while the first one is always more or less agreeable, the second horn invariably droops. Or wanders. Or uncoils, if it is really cross.

So while putting up the hair in this way is technically no problem for me - the motions for making the horns are easy, and the single-roll-on-back-of-the-head version of the updo is one of my staples (and I wear my hair up all days, all the time, with only a handful of exceptions a year) - it is still a problem to get it symmetrical, and both twin horns secured firmly. That is probably something to come with practice, but the updo without the veil looks pretty... hmm... let us settle for weird, and the same is true for modern eyes when worn with the veil. And that is the reason why I am not running around with this updo every day. (Plus it won't fit under a bicycle helmet.)

And last of all problems, the pinning. Kruselers worn on the pictures are shown either with a rounded look or with an angular look (the one I'm aiming for). While both can be achieved with changing the hairdo, I haven't yet found any pins shown on the kruseler paintings. Some way of holding the veil to the head must have been used, and I'll assume it was not hot glue straight out of the glue gun. So the big question is: Where and how was the veil fixed (pinned, probably) to the hair? Or was there some other solution? I have had lots of problems, and I always need several tries, to find the right place and right angle for the (bronze) pins to really hold the veil, and for more than some seconds. And it's not only holding it down: the veil should cover the hairline on the forehead, show some of the hair bump beneath and then fall down in a nice, straight line.

I'll happily try out suggestions the next time I wear this, so please shoot!

Finally, I have those photos I promised to you, wearing the kruseler. Here it is:


And another one, with the demure looking-down-look:


There are a few problems left to tackle in one of the next tries - business as usual, you could say. I have listed the issues I have, but will not post them before tomorrow, to give you the chance of looking without getting biased by my evaluation first. Please feel free to comment!

Yesterday evening was very pleasantly spent at a friend's apartment, where he took photos of two medieval outfits, for the flyer and for other promotional purposes. Now I have about 250 photos to sift through: I have to choose the best pictures for the flyer and related things and then wield the photo tools necessary to get them printable.

Which means today is also the time for me to find out how I can best handle raw photo data files. Which is what will fill the next bit of the day - and I hope I can find a good program for me fast.

Today is set apart for Current Writing Project - I need to make a little progress on that, plus three of the books I checked out of the library are due back next week, so I need to finish reading them. Since the alternative to writing on CWP is "sorting through paperwork and filing", I'm really keen on getting my nose into these books.

On an unrelated note, thanks to all of you who subscribed to the newsletter from yesterday's post!

I have fulfilled a dream by continuing research after my master's degree at Uni Bamberg. And, of course, I chose medieval garments as my topic. It took me a while, but I am very happy with the outcome (and eternally grateful to my parents, who were incredibly helpful when any obstacles turned up).

I have since successfully finished and defended my phd thesis "Konstruktion und Nähtechnik mittelalterlicher weltlicher Kleidung" (Construction and sewing techniques of secular medieval garments) in Summer 2008. The thesis is a comprehensive survey of extant medieval garments with analysis of cutting, construction development and sewing techniques.

It is written in German with an English summary; you can get more information (in German too) about the volume and the topics covered on my website. I have already found a wonderful publisher for the book, and publication is being prepared. However, two obstacles are left to overcome: Get funding for the costs of the print run, and determining the right number of copies to print.

Since it will take at least eight months until the book can be released - a long wait for you and me - and it is very hard to evaluate how many people will be interested - a problem for the publishing house and me - I am offering subscription to a newsletter that will hopefully help us all (and me even twice):
I will be sending a short newsflash whenever a step in the publishing process is finished, keeping you up to date.
You will know at once when the book can be pre-ordered, which means no delay for you in getting the book delivered.

In return, having a number of seriously interested people on the newsletter list will help me negotiating with the publishing house and my editor and me in determining the number of copies to print. We are aiming for the price range 60-80 Euro for the book (hardcover with b/w illustration and coloured plates).

If you are interested in getting this book, please subscribe to my newsletter by sending an e-mail with the subject "subscribe" to Diese E-Mail-Adresse ist vor Spambots geschützt! Zur Anzeige muss JavaScript eingeschaltet sein..

And if you are not interested in the book, but know somebody who might be, you can do me a huge favor by telling them!

I read about the very special helmet in Parzival, and now I'm wondering about it.

Gahmuret comes by a helmet of "adamas" ("dô schouwet er den adamas: daz was ein helm"). I have the middle high german - modern German version by Reclam, and the translation of "adamas" there is always "diamond".
In Lexer's dictionary, "adamas" is translated as a gemstone, especially diamond, but might also mean a magnet. Originally, the word seems to come from greek αδάμας, adámas, „impregnable“ (says German Wikipedia, sounding plausible enough for me). Which would mean a very hard thing - a very hard stone, in our modern interpretation of "diamond".

Now when I hear "diamond", my association is a small, sparkly, clear, expensive gemstone. Usually set in a ring of some sort. Not suitable for making into a helmet. At all. And I'm wondering about the associations expected from the medieval reader when hearing "adamas" and "helmet" in one breath.

Was the word so firmly linked to the one special gemstone? Lexer mentioning magnets suggests it was not so. And "adamas" is not so far removed, sound-wise, from "damasch" which would mean damascus steel (and that material, also called wootz, was a very good steel, and extremely hard).

On the other hand, making a helmet out of gemstones would not have been very practical - and making it out of real diamond more or less impossible. How far from reality would the author of such a story want to go? Is the audience expected to think of the helmet as an impossible fantasy, the invincible helmet of sparkling stone? A sparkle or even a strong gleam, however, is never mentioned in context with the helmet - though it is at length described when Wolfram talks about a garment made of gold cloth. Maybe "adamas" in this context was alluding to, or even meaning, damascus steel? Perhaps the closeness of the two words for damascus steel and diamond were a delightful play on words for Wolfram von Eschenbach and his audience? It is delightful to my own personal taste, when reading "adamas" and thinking "damascus steel" (which is also a beautiful thing).

I am very glad I can wonder about this only for my own private pleasure, and I do not need to prove anything. But it tickles my brain in a very enjoyable way.

If you have thoughts about the possible interpretations of this helmet, please share them - I'd love to know what you think!

We spent most of yesterday playing life-sized Sokoban in our apartment, sorting through old paper and rearranging books in the shelves. It really is amazing how much paper amasses in just a few years, even when we both try to discard old sheets and slips of whatever paper that are not needed anymore.

There is one exception for me when throwing away paper, though: Any artwork I made myself stays. Period. In some cases, even the preparatory sheets for the final thing.

And in addition to that, I admit I'm a bit reluctant to throw away old bills from computer parts, because I kind of like to rediscover them after some years.
Do you know this feeling of utter amazement (paired with relief that these times are past) when you read what you paid for, say, a 128 MB USB-stick back in the early 2000s or for 128 MB of RAM (simple RAM for a desktop PC) back in 2001? Blimey, those things were expensive! Yet they were needed, and we paid for them.

And now? 50 Euros for a 32 GB USB-Stick. 512 MB sticks given out as freebies on job fairs.
Amazing.

And then I think of the one Gigabyte RAM happily working away in my slightly elderly laptop (and 1 GB is all it will take) and how long some necessary procedures take... and I imagine doing this on 128 MB of RAM because what that cost 2001 is approximately what I paid for my GB in 2006 or 2007.
Impossible.

Oh, by the way, culling old paper or books is so fitting into the medieval calendar. As Got Medieval tells us, February is the month to trim back dead bits from the trees. Paper = made from wood pulp. Therefore paper = trees, dead bits of trees = paper stuff not needed anymore.
(And since there is an archaeologist in this household, and there are small bits of real wood around as well from past projects, we even managed the get-some-firewood part. Neat, huh?)