Balto’s genome

a journal of the plague, sword, and famine year [far North]

Read Le sabre des Takeda (Furin kazan, 風林火山) by Inoue Yasushi, a very interesting book set between Japanese history and feudal novel, with surgical descriptions of battles and psychological tensions. This book reminded me in some aspects of a novel of Yoshimura Akira on the earthquake of Kantô by its insistence on minutiae. Even though the style may be destabilizing, the central character, Yamamoto Kansuke, is fascinating. This is the first book by the author that I read, but I am now considering reading his Hunting Gun (as well as watching the 1969 movie with Mifune that was inspired from that book, if I can locate a copy). I also came across A Winter’s Promise, by Christelle Dabos. This is the first volume in The Mirror Visitor, which I bought in the airport in Milano. In English, despite the original being in French, which may help in distancing from the YA tone that sometimes permeates the style. An interesting creation nonetheless, hopefully keeping up till the fourth volume! As an aside, I found my Kindle inexplicably covered by condensation one evening, although this did not prevent it from working. Possibly correlated with my falling asleep while reading from it the night before.

Had great reindeer dishes in Lapland, as well as poorly cooked Arctic crab, despite magnificent specimen displayed in the aquarium of the restaurant. And made a trip back to the Ethiopian restaurant we visited for my 60th B party, this time without the excitement of having our laptops stolen and then retrieved. (Just as well since Tony Lelièvre was not part of the dinner party this time!)

Watched World War Z on a lazy Sunday night upon my return from Lapland, which I found appalling at many levels and unbearably US-centric (or just plainly racist). The scene where the zombies assail the West Bank separation wall is particularly shocking! I also watched Steel Rain, a South Korean manga turned into a movie about a fantasy coup in North Korea. Very fantasist and detached from reality, but still manageable.

Lapparadish

On top of BayesComp 2023 being rich and exciting, spending a week above the Arctic circle, by about 68⁰ North was most pleasurable. If we did not really see Northern Lights/auroras, as the above was taken by one of us with a long exposure shot on a particularly cold evening, rather than the diaphanous veils we could hardly perceive, cold and snow and associated activities were delivered without reservation!On the day we left, due to a late flight departure. we had an exhilarating 10k ride with three teams of Alaskan huskies, over a frozen river, following a musher. The strength of these dogs was amazing, esp. since they were not fully delivering, being able to reach 25km/hour in races over massive distances. On top, our guide delivered another and more realistic version of the story of Balto, whose musher was Finnish, and which we had watched many times with our kids (although we missed his statue in Central Park!)And I X country skied every early morning instead of running, over groomed trails and in all weathers, with a minimum (manageable) -24⁰ one morn. As a near neophyte in the game, I eventually developed a hip inflammation but the joy of going through the woods prior to sunrise and spotting the occasional Arctic hare was worth the 15 hours of it. Despite hard frozen glasses the coldest morns. By comparison, the afternoon break when I tried downhill skiing was less exciting even though the very dry snow there was enjoyable.Cold dry weather also re-awoke a nose bleed proclivity that I had forgotten since Arizona. Again, no big deal. And the conference dinner took place in a Sammi restaurant that proved quite the exception to my skip-the-conference-dinner rule with its reindeer and salmon dishes!

kuva Lapista⁻²³ [jatp]

kuva Lapista⁴ [jatp]