Boys of spirit, boys of will,
Boys of muscle, brain and power,
Fit to cope with anything,
These are wanted every hour.

This is something I have written as a lark after listening to some heavy metal music. It's also sort of a "proof of concept" for the writing style I am currently using, one that is in the third-person, an omniscient narrator and heavy in imagery. It is a fantasy piece, and somewhat violent, but not NSFW. The name itself stems from Old Norse, and means "Way of the Berserker"

The Traveler

I stand upon the buried mountain of my youth,
I look up to view the sun and ask: “what is the truth?”
I look below to the see the valley of life,
The woods below are filled with strife.
And as I tread upon my chosen trail,
What sort of life will I entail?

We dig dig dig in our mine the whole day through...

It's been a busy week, here at the ranch.

Up at 6 am, usually having a light snack whilst getting dressed. Out the door and in the razor by around 6:50. We do the 'rounds' in a single pasture, counting 52 cows and their calfs. If any are in unusual spots or not with the main herd, we count them again and look for the missing cows. They usually have a new-born calf with them.

The average is 1 or two a day, though last week we had none for four days and then five in friday. This morning there were five births. Four from last night, and one pre-mature birth. The premature supposedly happened becuase the mother ate some pine needles, which causes the animal to go into labor prematurely. The calf must've only weighed about thirty pounds, most are abnout eighty.

Since I've been unable to find a job in the Twin Cities, my grandfather was kind enough to offer me a position on his ranch in the Black Hills, near Rapid City.

Since he's getting on in years, it's my job to do all the things his body can't handle anymore. Like shoveling cow-pie out of the herd's watering hole (Actually saw one wander in it and then plopped a huge one right there. Did not get a picture but the smell was enough) or replacing tires on the motorcycles he uses to check the pastures. Fixing fences, stuff like that.

I did spend the first night at my uncle's dorm at the Rapid City School of Mines. Place was a mess worse than the ranch, I tell you.

In any case it's only been a few days on the job, but I've been kept busy enough.

Time to finish what I have started in writing. For now it will be my August Northern Mnnesota Trip, but there's alot out there I feel I ned to finish writing. Part of my New Year's Resolution, you see.

So the family back home has all decided to gather at my house for Thanksgiving... when I am not there.

The last time we were all together it was to see me off going to Europe, and then I dont think it was long enough. So I am just slightly irritated. Its like my family is thumbing their noses at me, in the sort of half joking half serious way my family does these things. My own Thanksgiving was not very memorable. There were no other Americans at the hostel, so I was forced to chow down on spam and stale bread by myself.

Moved out of Prague yesterday at around noon... am posting from the spa town of Karlovy Vary, this writings is the first time Ive been able to sit down in about twentyfour hours. My legs suprising dont feel too bad, but I do feel beat, and am having some slight balance issues. Its a long storz.

Spent today out and about around town, after picking up my lost luggage from the hostel. It was very gloomy, when I got in last night (at around 2300 no less) and it stayed that way when I went out to the western part of the city, as you can see in the pictures.