If you've ever wondered whether to take up a career in academia or go drug dealing instead, you might want to read this article about how Academia resembles a Drug Gang (h/t to Archaeologik).

Or you can read digitised journal (old ones, mostly, and in German) at the Unibib Jena. (They also have "Alt-Thüringen", which may be of interest if you are archaeologically inclined.) I haven't really found out what they all have, yet - but I thoroughly appreciate the rising number of digitised things.

Speaking of which, you can leaf through the entirety of some cool and interesting books, including the original manuscript of Alice's Adventures, the Lindisfarne Gospels, and many more if you go here. Thank you, British Library!

The last three weeks were... well, let's call them "full" - quite a bit of things going on, and quite a bit of travel, with very little time at home inbetween. Which means that, once more, I am sitting in the middle of a medium-sized chaos that begs to be taken care of.

Also, orders have to be sent out, and I have to plan for the next events (yes, already). Nothing about the relative slowness last year warned me that this year would be so busy! Don't get me wrong, though: I quite like having to be busy. It's just a matter of coping with the peaks in business (and the accompanying chaos) that I struggle with.

So, for you, while I try to stow all the things that have been on tour with me, and get the washing done and packed away again, and sort out all the other things that need sorting out, here's a link so you know where the nearest airport is. As a Voronoi map. Just in case you feel like getting away from it all. (You can turn that globe with your mouse, if you, like me, are more interested in the European 'ports.)

If you like coffee, you might also be amused by the story the Yarn Harlot posted on her blog. Something rather similar happened to us once, but with much less attending ills: we found out after buying the next glass of our preferred instant coffee and seeing them both beside each other - resulting in a new appreciation of the quality of the product we bought because we did not pay attention, and now having an alternative to the normal one.

Even though I had a few days off to relax and take a breather afterwards, the NESAT is still on my mind. It was a wonderful time with old colleagues and friends and the opportunity to meet new people, and I enjoyed every second of the conference.

NESAT is special, and this year it was extra-special, with the opportunity to visit the archaeological excavations in the bronze age salt mines, and a tour around Hallstatt. In case you haven't been there and have no idea about how it looks there, let me tell you: Hallstatt is spectacular, in more than one way. You have alpine scenery with those big, imposing mountains all around; the Hallstatt lake which is large and quite clear and very beautiful; and the combination between those two is really breathtaking. The weather throughout the week was wonderful, hot and sunny, and only very slightly overcast on some days, so we all got to enjoy summery weather. That included ice cream splurges and sitting outside for dinner in the evening.

The papers and posters were very interesting, and everybody kept to the time, so we all got to enjoy the breaks as scheduled (with minimal changes here and there, as is usual at a conference). It was so nice meeting and chatting with all the other textile folks - and the days went by in a blur, they passed so fast. At the end of the conference, I was quite happy that it was over, while at the same time very much regretting that it was already over. (A brain can only take so much archaeological textiles at a time... even if everything is wildly interesting.)

It's a pity that NESAT is only every three years, and then only for about four days. On the other hand, it's a big thing to organise, and handling all this every three years only is obviously much easier for the NESAT board than doing it every or every second year. I'm already looking forward to the next one in 2017, myself - it will be in the Czech republic, that time, and getting to see and to know some more of the Eastern colleagues will be a wonderful thing.

(Sorry for the very late blog post - sometimes my Firefox acts up, and it takes beyond forever to load a page... that was the case this morning, so internet work got delayed.)

There's this conference, started years ago by two textile archaeologists who felt it was a lonely occupation. It's taking place every three years, and it has grown a lot over time. Once upon a time, after it started, it was a smallish, private-ish conference where you needed to know someone to get in, and give a paper too. By now, it has become much more open (starting with the one in Copenhagen 2008, the first one that I attended), and you can just register and participate... provided you can stand the idea of having a large bunch of textile archaeologists talking textile, textile, textile, for several days in a row.

I'm talking about NESAT, of course. The wait is over, and after spending the weekend frantically getting everything that needed to be done before end of next week wrapped up, I am now on my way to Hallstatt. Where I will meet lots of lovely colleagues again, and finally get to see the glorious salt mines of Hallstatt. Where I will probably stay up way too late and chat way too much and have loads and loads of fun. Where I will have absolutely no time, and no inclination, to write a blog post for you (sorry, but that's the plain truth).

So I'm taking a blog break until June 2 (I'll be taking a few days off after the conference). Have a good time until then!

It's Friday, hooray! And since it's Friday, you are getting a list of links. Friendly links. That might or might not begin with an F, such as:

Fablab. I've posted about my visit to the FabLab Nuremberg, and just in case you are interested in learning more about these labs, here is the website of the international association of FabLabs, and here is a list with all of them, sorted by location. In case you are planning to make something on your first visit, I'd recommend checking out the website of your intended lab and preparing as much as possible - for instance, drawing the thing you're planning to lasercut or 3D print beforehand; these things eat more time than expected as a rule.

Finalist list for the Hugo Award, with links. I'll be going to LonCon this summer, together with Margit from Alte Künste, and that means I'll be a Hugo voter. I've linked to this list before, but in the meantime, I have actually managed to read some of the pieces, and they are delightful reading, so I link it again. Plus Finalist starts with an F.

Friends, as painted by Bob Ross. I've never watched more than a small snippet of his videos or shows, but this article about statistics in Bob Ross' work is delightfully geeky, and I enjoyed it a lot.

Fernsehen. That's German for Television, but if you need me to tell you, this link is not for you - it's a show of a series of educational television called "Experiment Mittelalter", with each episode about 15 min long. I've taken a glimpse into the first one and I'm not so sure about whether to link to this or not: It's a mix of commonplace knowledge without mentioning the many nuances, living history scenes that are not really bad but still cater to quite a few typical expectations and misconceptions (such as rough-hewn undecorated stone walls in the dining parlour and drab brown garments worn by almost everyones), but also nice glimpses at modern crafters working on replica pieces and with historical techniques. I'd recommend taking what is said with a grain of salt, maybe a bit more than a grain, and enjoy the pretty pictures - especially those of the crafters doing their thing. Having said this, go take a look and decide for yourself what you think of it, and I'd be happy to hear your opinion. It's here, and it's all German.

The time has come - the Call for Papers and the registration form for our next Textile Forum are online. As usual, you can find them at www.textileforum.org.

This year, our conference will take place from 3-9 November, and our focus topic is "Plant Fibres: Materials, Techniques, Problems". We've touched on plant fibres now and then in the previous Forums, but there's usually much more been said and done on wool and silk, so we would like to have this as the focus topic for a change.

Just like we did last year, we're planning to make it a combination of papers and practical sessions, and we're looking forward to the suggestions and proposals coming in.

If you're interested in the Forum, or know someone who might be interested, please pass on the Call for Papers - we're happy to see it spread out!

This has been going through facebook, where I stumbed across it - a textile mill that closed in 1980 was abandoned with all its machinery still standing, and has recently been photographed. Go see the pictures - it's stunningly beautiful and sad at the same time.

Also: How Football sounds to people who don't care about it. (Hint: The article replaces football with archaeology.)

And that's it for today, since I am taking a day off, in preparation of work this coming weekend (I will be in Bietigheim-Bissingen on Sunday, demonstrating spinning) and the NESAT conference soon after. I want my batteries full for that!