Well, I passed.
And now my upper arm aches. I got four shots of vaccines today and bought almost 200 dollars worth of anti-malaria pills. Sounds like this Philippines trip is coming up pretty fast, right?
But first to Iceland. Tomorrow, to be precise. It'll be interesting to see my dear old Iceland totally saturated with winter rains.
And in case you wondered, the exam was really really REALLY hard. I thought for a while they weren't going to pass me. It was over three hours of relentless probing and prodding and debate. My brain was so fried at the end that I could hardly say my own name. But it was immensely useful and I'm very glad that I'm done.
Then, after work today, I realized that today was the first day that I felt entitled to be in grad school.
fimmtudagur, desember 21, 2006
mánudagur, desember 18, 2006
miðvikudagur, desember 13, 2006
The joy of science
There is something called poor correlation. Then there is this:
To protect sensitive souls I have changed the labeling on the axes.
To protect sensitive souls I have changed the labeling on the axes.
mánudagur, desember 11, 2006
The visa
in my passport (and my passport, too) arrived with the FedEx man today. Now I just need January 6th to appear (and get all my gear sorted and packed) and then: Philippines, here I come!!
sunnudagur, desember 10, 2006
It's time to share
my knitting-and-crocheting habit with you all. Here's my latest accomplishment:
and a scarf that I made while watching Sex and the City with Annelise at the lake house back in the day:
and a scarf that I made while watching Sex and the City with Annelise at the lake house back in the day:
föstudagur, desember 08, 2006
The massage
Just so I won't forget, I'm telling you guys that I have an appointment for a massage at 4:15 pm next Tuesday. Gee, I'm looking forward to that. What untamed luxury!
miðvikudagur, desember 06, 2006
9 in your sleep
Again I'm having such vivid dreams that I almost wake myself up. Especially when I start talking in my sleep, which I think I have been doing lately. Poor Shan :)
Every day now brings the dreaded A-exam closer. Omg. All hail to Damien Rice for helping me through these difficult times.
Every day now brings the dreaded A-exam closer. Omg. All hail to Damien Rice for helping me through these difficult times.
miðvikudagur, nóvember 29, 2006
My fortune cookie
I bought the ticket to the Philippines today. Now I better pass the A-exam, which I also (tentatively) scheduled today for December 20th. Hjálp!!
miðvikudagur, nóvember 22, 2006
On human nature
My friend Stína's recent post made me think of all these different conditions that can afflict one and how they are not clear-cut but rather melt and fuse into one another. Much like crystals if you ask me, the geologist. Mineralogists have come up with the most beautiful diagrams to describe the ways in which crystals morph into one another depending on their ingredients and conditions of formation, and isn't that what ultimately also dictates how and who we become? It is strangely comforting to me to see how close we humans are to the basic rules of the universe.
All complaints banished
Ok, Væla, I'll stop complaining :)
Yesterday we had several nanometers of snow and the season's first rime. Today, the nanometers had all sublimated but the rime was still there. Bjútífúl.
Another Thanksgiving is upon us. Shan and I are taking off to Delaware this afternoon to spend the holiday with friends and perhaps family. No blogging for a while (as if that were anything new here on this farm).
Yesterday we had several nanometers of snow and the season's first rime. Today, the nanometers had all sublimated but the rime was still there. Bjútífúl.
Another Thanksgiving is upon us. Shan and I are taking off to Delaware this afternoon to spend the holiday with friends and perhaps family. No blogging for a while (as if that were anything new here on this farm).
þriðjudagur, nóvember 21, 2006
Oh, the Prime Minister
What prompted the quiz was this event and the fact that when I told people I was going some would ask "ok, but who's that guy??".
Well, at least I didn't tell any Nobel Prize winner...
Well, at least I didn't tell any Nobel Prize winner...
sunnudagur, nóvember 19, 2006
föstudagur, nóvember 17, 2006
And since I'm at it...
I might as well post some more.
Am currently getting psyched about my upcoming trip to the Philippines in January. For those of you not in the know (which includes, I presume, every reader of this blog), I am going there to do fieldwork for my thesis work. It should be quite some adventure...
Fortunately I have some contacts there by now, thanks to my office mate Adam. A professor at the University of the Philippines has been exceptionally helpful, putting me in contact with a lot of people who might be able to assist me in many ways. Among other things, he's secured me the company of one of his grad students for part of my fieldwork. Now that's swell, because there's nothing more conductive to sudden madness than being alone in the field for too long.
So, I'll be goofin' around on Luzón in January and February, visiting ophiolites and volcanoes and maybe, if I'm very dugleg, Palawan. Again, a geologist's life is hard.
Then take a look: This is so cool! It almost makes me feel like a kid again, that a letter from me went to these far away, exotic places.
Other than that... nah, nothing else.
Am currently getting psyched about my upcoming trip to the Philippines in January. For those of you not in the know (which includes, I presume, every reader of this blog), I am going there to do fieldwork for my thesis work. It should be quite some adventure...
Fortunately I have some contacts there by now, thanks to my office mate Adam. A professor at the University of the Philippines has been exceptionally helpful, putting me in contact with a lot of people who might be able to assist me in many ways. Among other things, he's secured me the company of one of his grad students for part of my fieldwork. Now that's swell, because there's nothing more conductive to sudden madness than being alone in the field for too long.
So, I'll be goofin' around on Luzón in January and February, visiting ophiolites and volcanoes and maybe, if I'm very dugleg, Palawan. Again, a geologist's life is hard.
Then take a look: This is so cool! It almost makes me feel like a kid again, that a letter from me went to these far away, exotic places.
Other than that... nah, nothing else.
What ?#!%#*&T*^&T)@^?
Holy guacamole, what the bloody hell is going on w. this Blogger thing? Some missing html closing tags and my blog is practically stabbed to death! I protest. I protest all.
Update:
Well, looks like it's back to normal. Maybe I'll entertain the devil and try posting these quiz results again. But *phew*, this was about as much as my little heart can handle.
Update:
Well, looks like it's back to normal. Maybe I'll entertain the devil and try posting these quiz results again. But *phew*, this was about as much as my little heart can handle.
fimmtudagur, nóvember 16, 2006
sunnudagur, nóvember 12, 2006
Lost blogger
A severe Lost addiction has afflicted family members as of the beginning of the third season.
We happened to be at friends' house when the first episode of the third season was aired. Inevitably, we left with the entire DVD-collection of the first season, borrowed from the lady of the house. A week later, after watching the second episode of the third season, we borrowed the complete second season from another friend. Five days later, we were up-to date. We should probably go and get a life, but Lost is a perfectly acceptable substitute for one, thank you.
But, now there won't be any new shows until February. That's totally awful. Fortunately I have finals, Christmas break and a trip to the Philippines to keep me busy until my life can resume.
We happened to be at friends' house when the first episode of the third season was aired. Inevitably, we left with the entire DVD-collection of the first season, borrowed from the lady of the house. A week later, after watching the second episode of the third season, we borrowed the complete second season from another friend. Five days later, we were up-to date. We should probably go and get a life, but Lost is a perfectly acceptable substitute for one, thank you.
But, now there won't be any new shows until February. That's totally awful. Fortunately I have finals, Christmas break and a trip to the Philippines to keep me busy until my life can resume.
mánudagur, október 30, 2006
Breaking the Silence
I am breaking my silence of more than a month to tell you the most extraordinary thing:
The other day, I met a guy in his twenties who taught his grandmother to crochet.
Now beat that!
The other day, I met a guy in his twenties who taught his grandmother to crochet.
Now beat that!
sunnudagur, september 24, 2006
Plögg dagsins
Fréttatilkynning
Göngum með Ómari
- þjóðarsátt fyrir komandi kynslóðir
Boðað er til fjöldagöngu með Ómari Ragnarssyni frá Hlemmi að Austurvelli klukkan 20.00 á þriðjudag. Ómar hefur kynnt hugmyndir um nýjar leiðir sem fela í sér að hægt verði að afla raforku til að knýja álverið í Reyðarfirði án þess að fórna þeim náttúruperlum sem færu undir fyrirhugað Hálslón. Ómar leggur til að fyllingu Hálslóns verði frestað og Kárahnjúkavirkjun verði geymd ógangsett sem magnað minnismerki um hugrekki þjóðar sem leitaði sátta við kynslóðir framtíðarinnar og eigin samvisku.
Ómar kynnti þessar hugmyndir sínar á blaðamannafundi á dögunum. Við tökum áskorun hans og sýnum stuðning okkar í verki með því að safnast saman og ganga niður Laugaveginn. Við hvetjum þig til að gera slíkt hið sama.
Því er boðað til:
Jökulsárgöngu niður Laugaveginn á þriðjudag kl 20.00
frá Hlemmi að Austurvelli
Horfumst í augu við siðferðislegar skyldur okkar gagnvart landi og náttúru –
Göngum með Ómari niður Laugarveg á þriðjudaginn.
Göngum með Ómari
- þjóðarsátt fyrir komandi kynslóðir
Boðað er til fjöldagöngu með Ómari Ragnarssyni frá Hlemmi að Austurvelli klukkan 20.00 á þriðjudag. Ómar hefur kynnt hugmyndir um nýjar leiðir sem fela í sér að hægt verði að afla raforku til að knýja álverið í Reyðarfirði án þess að fórna þeim náttúruperlum sem færu undir fyrirhugað Hálslón. Ómar leggur til að fyllingu Hálslóns verði frestað og Kárahnjúkavirkjun verði geymd ógangsett sem magnað minnismerki um hugrekki þjóðar sem leitaði sátta við kynslóðir framtíðarinnar og eigin samvisku.
Ómar kynnti þessar hugmyndir sínar á blaðamannafundi á dögunum. Við tökum áskorun hans og sýnum stuðning okkar í verki með því að safnast saman og ganga niður Laugaveginn. Við hvetjum þig til að gera slíkt hið sama.
Því er boðað til:
Jökulsárgöngu niður Laugaveginn á þriðjudag kl 20.00
frá Hlemmi að Austurvelli
Horfumst í augu við siðferðislegar skyldur okkar gagnvart landi og náttúru –
Göngum með Ómari niður Laugarveg á þriðjudaginn.
Idling
Every so often I have to visit this website and be nostalgic. That's been today's order.
It hasn't all been melancholy, though. To my wonderfully pleasant surprise, the Camper shoes I ordered online last week are already in Ohio, having been sent from Barcelona yesterday! Jömmí jömm, new Camper shoes!! Lucky me!
It hasn't all been melancholy, though. To my wonderfully pleasant surprise, the Camper shoes I ordered online last week are already in Ohio, having been sent from Barcelona yesterday! Jömmí jömm, new Camper shoes!! Lucky me!
laugardagur, september 23, 2006
fimmtudagur, september 21, 2006
Out of my league?
Yes! I finally did it! After a long absence away from any kind of organized singing I enlisted in a chorus here in my hometown of Ithaca, NY. The chosen chorus was the one that didn't require an audition, as there are few things I hate more than such torture. I also figured that if it doesn't require an audition, it probably is pretty easy going (last time I sung in a chorus was in Longyearbyen, Svalbard. The program consisted of ABBA and "Vem kan segla". I obviously need easy going).
Boy, was I wrong. I've been to two rehersals so far and I feel that I've accidentally stepped into the Navy Seals of choruses. At the first rehersal we were handed the score of the fall semester's piece: Mass in A-flat major by Schubert. Open it on page 1 and start singing. Before I could flip the page, the rest of the chorus had already sung half the mass. Holy Mo.
Many many many years ago I flirted, with appalling results, with structured music learning. I must have been the worst student ever to (dis-)grace Mr. Cortes's little classroom on Hverfisgata with her presence. I never learned to read music properly. I can't tell a tvíund from an áttund (or almost not). And here I am, supposed to be onsighting a whole f***ing mass! Hahaha, am I the only one who thinks this is funny?
So, they do have training wheels for us less gifted. Bunches of CDs with all the different voices, including fortunately the alto, are on their way to Ithaca as we speak. I can pop it into the CD player in the car and howl out loud all I want on the highway so as to not embarras my fellow altos during the steepest part of the learning curve. And actually, although it may sound like I'm cursing the day I decided to join the chorus, I love it.
Boy, was I wrong. I've been to two rehersals so far and I feel that I've accidentally stepped into the Navy Seals of choruses. At the first rehersal we were handed the score of the fall semester's piece: Mass in A-flat major by Schubert. Open it on page 1 and start singing. Before I could flip the page, the rest of the chorus had already sung half the mass. Holy Mo.
Many many many years ago I flirted, with appalling results, with structured music learning. I must have been the worst student ever to (dis-)grace Mr. Cortes's little classroom on Hverfisgata with her presence. I never learned to read music properly. I can't tell a tvíund from an áttund (or almost not). And here I am, supposed to be onsighting a whole f***ing mass! Hahaha, am I the only one who thinks this is funny?
So, they do have training wheels for us less gifted. Bunches of CDs with all the different voices, including fortunately the alto, are on their way to Ithaca as we speak. I can pop it into the CD player in the car and howl out loud all I want on the highway so as to not embarras my fellow altos during the steepest part of the learning curve. And actually, although it may sound like I'm cursing the day I decided to join the chorus, I love it.
mánudagur, september 18, 2006
Hammer Time
I won a very solid rock hammer this afternoon. Always the lucky one, me. This unexpected stroke of good luck happened at an information session held by Conoco Philips, whose representatives are now on campus trying to lure us geoscientists into their ranks. Whether that will be my fate remains to be seen...
The upstairs neighbors' TV has been keeping Shan and I company for the past few weeks. It's a very reliable companion, within hearing reach every hour, every day. While we admire its tenacity I doubt if either of us would miss it even the slightest bit were it to burn in the flames of hell. Perhaps the rock hammer could be put to good use here?
A few nights ago I dreamt that an old friend of mine had started wearing eye shadow and eye liner (but no mascara!). That wouldn't be odd, per se, if this particular friend of mine wasn't a guy who, so far, hasn't shown any interest whatsoever in make-up.
In that same dream, my cell phone had gone haywire. Whenever I'd try and call someone, the phone would decide, in some random process, who would actually be called. Of course, that would never be the one I planned to call. Don't try to tell me technology isn't evil.
Which brings me to the topic of instruments. Scientific instruments. I'm not the biggest fan, at least not of uncooperative instruments. One particularly uncooperative instrument in my lab didn't start to behave until it got to go to California for a month. When it came back it finally started working again. That's one clever instrument if you ask me.
The upstairs neighbors' TV has been keeping Shan and I company for the past few weeks. It's a very reliable companion, within hearing reach every hour, every day. While we admire its tenacity I doubt if either of us would miss it even the slightest bit were it to burn in the flames of hell. Perhaps the rock hammer could be put to good use here?
A few nights ago I dreamt that an old friend of mine had started wearing eye shadow and eye liner (but no mascara!). That wouldn't be odd, per se, if this particular friend of mine wasn't a guy who, so far, hasn't shown any interest whatsoever in make-up.
In that same dream, my cell phone had gone haywire. Whenever I'd try and call someone, the phone would decide, in some random process, who would actually be called. Of course, that would never be the one I planned to call. Don't try to tell me technology isn't evil.
Which brings me to the topic of instruments. Scientific instruments. I'm not the biggest fan, at least not of uncooperative instruments. One particularly uncooperative instrument in my lab didn't start to behave until it got to go to California for a month. When it came back it finally started working again. That's one clever instrument if you ask me.
þriðjudagur, september 05, 2006
Brownian motion
Ok, so, before I continue my ambling through the remote sensing problem set due on Friday I'm going to tell you this:
- Yesterday was my dad's birthday. Til hamingju!!
- Friday was India's birthday. Congratulations!
- Shan and I very unexpectedly spent the weekend in Oregon celebrating the latter birthday and hanging out w. the family. An altogether great experience.
- My paper has been cited once. Hah!
- Am currently reading "The Feminie Mystique" by Betty Friedan. It is totally captivating and I'm blasting through it as if it were a thriller. It's also unbelievable and more than a little frightening to read about where women were in the USA in the middle of the 20th century. Repeatedly I find myself just having to stop reading and pick my jaw off of the floor.
- The Dixie Chicks are my favorite at this moment, both for their music and because they have guts (they do, for instance, have clothes on..). Sufjan Stevens is also delightfully bizarre but too easy to fall asleep to.
- Somehow I find myself taking three classes this semester. Remember that this is my fourth YEAR here in grad school and I was fed up with taking class already by the second semester. Something's odd here.
- This semester I'm also teaching a lab in an introductory oceanography class. It's so much fun because us two grad student TA's have two undergrad assistants who actually do the teaching. I find it so cool and not because they do the hard part, but because I'm learning so much from my undergrad assistant about how to interact with students and teach. It's by far the best part of my semester.
Steradians and solid angles have yet to prove if they can enrich my life significantly until the end of the semester. I guess I'll have to plough through the problem set to find out.
- Yesterday was my dad's birthday. Til hamingju!!
- Friday was India's birthday. Congratulations!
- Shan and I very unexpectedly spent the weekend in Oregon celebrating the latter birthday and hanging out w. the family. An altogether great experience.
- My paper has been cited once. Hah!
- Am currently reading "The Feminie Mystique" by Betty Friedan. It is totally captivating and I'm blasting through it as if it were a thriller. It's also unbelievable and more than a little frightening to read about where women were in the USA in the middle of the 20th century. Repeatedly I find myself just having to stop reading and pick my jaw off of the floor.
- The Dixie Chicks are my favorite at this moment, both for their music and because they have guts (they do, for instance, have clothes on..). Sufjan Stevens is also delightfully bizarre but too easy to fall asleep to.
- Somehow I find myself taking three classes this semester. Remember that this is my fourth YEAR here in grad school and I was fed up with taking class already by the second semester. Something's odd here.
- This semester I'm also teaching a lab in an introductory oceanography class. It's so much fun because us two grad student TA's have two undergrad assistants who actually do the teaching. I find it so cool and not because they do the hard part, but because I'm learning so much from my undergrad assistant about how to interact with students and teach. It's by far the best part of my semester.
Steradians and solid angles have yet to prove if they can enrich my life significantly until the end of the semester. I guess I'll have to plough through the problem set to find out.
sunnudagur, ágúst 27, 2006
*shiver shiver*
This article I read recently in the London Review of Books sent shivers down my spine. It's over 20 pages long but well worth the slog.
föstudagur, ágúst 25, 2006
Motorcrash
My fellow grad student Jack and I were out riding yesterday afternoon when we saw this. I guess one can't be too careful...
mánudagur, ágúst 14, 2006
The Canal Classic
A handful of us Ithacans went to Little Falls in the Mohawk Valley over the weekend to compete in the Canal Classic 2006 bike race, including yours truly. It was good fun and really hard, especially since it was pretty windy and I rode all alone the whole way (~54 km). I guess I was pretty pathetic towards the end as I found myself yelling, in Icelandic, at the wind. Anyhow, much to my surprise I walked away with a prize! It might have had something to do with the number of participants in my category *hóst hóst* but what the hell, who cares?? A plaque's a plaque, right?
Much less surprisingly, Shan also got a prize. We're so cool ;)
The night before the race we spent at a friend's parents' house. For inexplicable reasons we ended up watching 'Hostel'. I'm still having bad dreams. Yikes.
Much less surprisingly, Shan also got a prize. We're so cool ;)
The night before the race we spent at a friend's parents' house. For inexplicable reasons we ended up watching 'Hostel'. I'm still having bad dreams. Yikes.
föstudagur, ágúst 04, 2006
Friday night
Uhhh... I'm looking forward to going home. Just a little more desktime. Thank heavens for Björk and Pagan Poetry, how would one otherwise make it through grad school?
mánudagur, júlí 31, 2006
Ithaca's heroes
It honestly feels like I'm being deep-fried.
Saturday felt hot. Or maybe it was just me. In any case I sweated like a pig riding around Skaneateles Lake, up numerous hills (some of them very much unpaved and gravelly - which lent a sense of adventure to the whole endeavour) and with the wind in the face often enough that I caught myself wondering if I'd been beamed over to Iceland in the Miocene. Haríharíhar, that was a geologist's joke, aren't I funny??!? Arriving in Skaneateles town I sneaked my way into the town's fanciest restaurant's bathroom (wow, lots of genitive there) and seeing my face redder than an overripe tomato I was happy not to have bumped into my hero Bill in the lobby ;) Us outing clubbers had lunch at the famous fish-fry joint in town and didn't meet anyone famous. The town does have a bit of the Nantucket feeling about it, though. The Nantuckety people were all looking at this glorious boat show by the lake, which I wowed to visit the following day with my beloved co-habitator.
And so we did. It was lovely. I saw, for the first time ever, a Joel White/Herreshoff boat in person. Why is that important? Hah, before meeting a certain somebody I woundn't have known. But now I know: Because these are the most beautiful boats on Earth!
Well, the recently-turned-tropical outdoors of my 'Mercan hometown await. I'd better get the spandex on!
Later:
Oh, and btw, the title obviously refers to my lovely co-habitator and his girlfriend, who are braving global warming and heatstroke by going out for a bike ride.
Saturday felt hot. Or maybe it was just me. In any case I sweated like a pig riding around Skaneateles Lake, up numerous hills (some of them very much unpaved and gravelly - which lent a sense of adventure to the whole endeavour) and with the wind in the face often enough that I caught myself wondering if I'd been beamed over to Iceland in the Miocene. Haríharíhar, that was a geologist's joke, aren't I funny??!? Arriving in Skaneateles town I sneaked my way into the town's fanciest restaurant's bathroom (wow, lots of genitive there) and seeing my face redder than an overripe tomato I was happy not to have bumped into my hero Bill in the lobby ;) Us outing clubbers had lunch at the famous fish-fry joint in town and didn't meet anyone famous. The town does have a bit of the Nantucket feeling about it, though. The Nantuckety people were all looking at this glorious boat show by the lake, which I wowed to visit the following day with my beloved co-habitator.
And so we did. It was lovely. I saw, for the first time ever, a Joel White/Herreshoff boat in person. Why is that important? Hah, before meeting a certain somebody I woundn't have known. But now I know: Because these are the most beautiful boats on Earth!
Well, the recently-turned-tropical outdoors of my 'Mercan hometown await. I'd better get the spandex on!
Later:
Oh, and btw, the title obviously refers to my lovely co-habitator and his girlfriend, who are braving global warming and heatstroke by going out for a bike ride.
Ithaca right now:
"Current Weather Conditions
86°F
30°C
* Relative humidity: 63%
* Wind: 6 MPH from the north
* Atmospheric Pressure: 29.88 in. (758 mmHg)
Last updated Monday, July 31,2006, at 6:00PM
National Weather Service Forecast
Forecast issued 3:12 pm EDT, Mon, 2006-Jul-31
Warning: EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNING IN EFFECT FROM 10 AM TUESDAY TO 8 PM EDT WEDNESDAY"
See more here.
86°F
30°C
* Relative humidity: 63%
* Wind: 6 MPH from the north
* Atmospheric Pressure: 29.88 in. (758 mmHg)
Last updated Monday, July 31,2006, at 6:00PM
National Weather Service Forecast
Forecast issued 3:12 pm EDT, Mon, 2006-Jul-31
Warning: EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNING IN EFFECT FROM 10 AM TUESDAY TO 8 PM EDT WEDNESDAY"
See more here.
föstudagur, júlí 28, 2006
Growing vegetables... where??
An excerpt from a book on the climate of Hawai'i:
"Even though summer radiation totals at the high-latitude cities exceed Honolulu's because of longer days, the midday radiation intensity is still higher in Hawai'i. This means that while a person is more likely to get a bad sunburn in summer in Honolulu, bigger vegetables can probably be grown in summer in Reykjavík, Iceland, because of the length of daylight."
Habbla ha. Somebody should have told those taro-farmers in Hawai'i...
"Even though summer radiation totals at the high-latitude cities exceed Honolulu's because of longer days, the midday radiation intensity is still higher in Hawai'i. This means that while a person is more likely to get a bad sunburn in summer in Honolulu, bigger vegetables can probably be grown in summer in Reykjavík, Iceland, because of the length of daylight."
Habbla ha. Somebody should have told those taro-farmers in Hawai'i...
Visit
Thor is right now in the skies above Ithaca. Gee, I love thunderstorms!! Especially when I'm safely inside.
Mom and Kristján kept Shan and me company over the past weekend and gee, was it nice to see them! We visited some nice restaurants in town and out, not to mention the ever-popular Restaurant Mamma which this time was located in our very own kitchen at Seneca Resorts Inc.. We went to see some bikers at the Dinosaur BBQ in Syracuse, as well as just hanging out on the couch and chatting. An altogether wonderfully relaxing and entertaining weekend. Hail visits!! (hint hint, my sheep-loyal readers).
And since they left it's been back to work. And a couple of bike rides, one in the pouring rain and the other up a big big hill. And tomorrow I'm going with some buddies from the Outing Club on a ride around Lake Skaneateles. Should be nice, especially if the weatherman is right that Thor will be somewhere far away.
Mom and Kristján kept Shan and me company over the past weekend and gee, was it nice to see them! We visited some nice restaurants in town and out, not to mention the ever-popular Restaurant Mamma which this time was located in our very own kitchen at Seneca Resorts Inc.. We went to see some bikers at the Dinosaur BBQ in Syracuse, as well as just hanging out on the couch and chatting. An altogether wonderfully relaxing and entertaining weekend. Hail visits!! (hint hint, my sheep-loyal readers).
And since they left it's been back to work. And a couple of bike rides, one in the pouring rain and the other up a big big hill. And tomorrow I'm going with some buddies from the Outing Club on a ride around Lake Skaneateles. Should be nice, especially if the weatherman is right that Thor will be somewhere far away.
fimmtudagur, júlí 20, 2006
Art in Grótta
If I were in Iceland these days I'd go to see the art exhibit in Grótta and listen to Haraldur Jónsson's wailing piece of art, also heard in the interview with the artists on The Old Steam.
fimmtudagur, júlí 13, 2006
Happy crappy
It turns out that Vanuatu is the happiest place on Earth, not Iceland!
In fact my beloved fatherland, for all its self-glorification, scores pretty bad on this new happiness scale, which takes into account not only perceived human happiness but also how efficiently we use Earth's resources. On that scale, we come in at nr. 54 out of 178. The good news here: There is a LOT of room for improvement.
Among the countries that are better than we at efficiently converting their natural resources into happiness and prosperity are China (!!!), Nepal, Bangladesh, Tadjikistan and Cuba. Hundreds of new, old-fashioned and extremely polluting coal power plants are being constructed every year in China. These plants produce enough soot to make cities on the West Coast of the USA worry about impending pollution. Still, China scores higher than we.
But wait, don't WE, the Icelanders, live in the most pristine and wonderful country on Earth? Aren't we saving the world from global warming by building Kárahnjúkavirkjun and damming every river, stream and creek for aluminum production and, maybe, oil refineries? Doesn't the global society see what an Enormous favour we are doing to everyone on this planet when we drown our unique sub-arctic ecosystems for an international aluminum giant??
We don't even have unemployment. We're idiots.
In fact my beloved fatherland, for all its self-glorification, scores pretty bad on this new happiness scale, which takes into account not only perceived human happiness but also how efficiently we use Earth's resources. On that scale, we come in at nr. 54 out of 178. The good news here: There is a LOT of room for improvement.
Among the countries that are better than we at efficiently converting their natural resources into happiness and prosperity are China (!!!), Nepal, Bangladesh, Tadjikistan and Cuba. Hundreds of new, old-fashioned and extremely polluting coal power plants are being constructed every year in China. These plants produce enough soot to make cities on the West Coast of the USA worry about impending pollution. Still, China scores higher than we.
But wait, don't WE, the Icelanders, live in the most pristine and wonderful country on Earth? Aren't we saving the world from global warming by building Kárahnjúkavirkjun and damming every river, stream and creek for aluminum production and, maybe, oil refineries? Doesn't the global society see what an Enormous favour we are doing to everyone on this planet when we drown our unique sub-arctic ecosystems for an international aluminum giant??
We don't even have unemployment. We're idiots.
þriðjudagur, júlí 11, 2006
Claudia and I
There's one thing I can think of that Claudia Schiffer and I do not have in common: Being photogenic. Earlier this afternoon I had to have my picture taken at the DMV for my licence and trust me, it was agonizing. In the first try, I looked like a heroin addict. In the next one, I looked like someone who has just been roused from a 250 year slumber. The third, fourth, fifth and sixth pictures were all perfect expressions of the death-row inmate I would be if I ever did something seriously wrong here in this country. And the seventh one, well, it nearly made the lady behind the counter sob but it's going to be on the licence anyway.
Shuffle shuff
I'm totally happy with my iTunes shuffle-function. Now I'm finally hearing again all these fabulous songs I haven't had the imagination to play for years!
mánudagur, júlí 10, 2006
Consumer crisis
I'm in a consumer crisis: I've become eligible for a free new phone from the cell phone company because I've been such a loyal customer. However, my old phone works just fine and I don't really need a new one. What do the Danes do then??
The sleuths
Read this, and you'll see the handsomest boyfriend on Earth and his awesome team of science-detectives. Impressive, huh?
þriðjudagur, júlí 04, 2006
4th of July
The fireworks to celebrate the national holiday were all sent off last night. Unlike my first summer here, when I watched them twice, I didn't even bother to steal a look out the window this time. The reason is, obviously, the alarming combination of TV and the Tour. One has to celebrate the day off somehow, though, and therefore Shan and I are headed for a BBQ party at his advisor's house later in the afternoon. I'm right now enjoying the peace and quiet in my lab, trying to get some blogging done. Yep, very hardworking I am, ay.
For the last few days Shan and I have been pup- and housesitting for our friends Vern, Ryan and Brady. Those of you who know me might be aware of the fact that dogs and I traditionally don't go together very well. Either I've been mistaken about the canine population or Cadence and Presto are highly unusual specimens, but they are totally adorable. They do like to bark a lot when people come over and jump all over the visitors but once they (and I) are past that, they are incredibly smart and nice dogs. And I can't believe that researchers are wasting their time trying to scientifically prove that animals have personalities - how could anyone miss that?? Presto is definitely the more rebellious of the lot (she even wears a mohawk on her back when she's out play-fighting with her sister!) but Cadence takes full advantage of the fact that humans are more than happy to feed her and keep her happy and she'll even try to climb into my bed in the mornings when she wants her breakfast.
Another thing of notable importance in our temporary house is a bizarre thing called TV. We haven't had a set since last year (i.e., it lived in the basement for a while until Shan decided to give it away to whomever would take it. It was gone before you could count to ten) and I have to admit, I'm glad. Now when we come home we send the dogs out to do their thing and then we go do our thing - watch TV. At some point during the evening when we find ourselves starving we pick up the phone and order a pizza. Then we continue watching and wake up in the middle of the night, having salivated all over the couch. Ok, well, it's not quite that bad, but it is bad. I'm never getting a TV, that's for sure!
For the last few days Shan and I have been pup- and housesitting for our friends Vern, Ryan and Brady. Those of you who know me might be aware of the fact that dogs and I traditionally don't go together very well. Either I've been mistaken about the canine population or Cadence and Presto are highly unusual specimens, but they are totally adorable. They do like to bark a lot when people come over and jump all over the visitors but once they (and I) are past that, they are incredibly smart and nice dogs. And I can't believe that researchers are wasting their time trying to scientifically prove that animals have personalities - how could anyone miss that?? Presto is definitely the more rebellious of the lot (she even wears a mohawk on her back when she's out play-fighting with her sister!) but Cadence takes full advantage of the fact that humans are more than happy to feed her and keep her happy and she'll even try to climb into my bed in the mornings when she wants her breakfast.
Another thing of notable importance in our temporary house is a bizarre thing called TV. We haven't had a set since last year (i.e., it lived in the basement for a while until Shan decided to give it away to whomever would take it. It was gone before you could count to ten) and I have to admit, I'm glad. Now when we come home we send the dogs out to do their thing and then we go do our thing - watch TV. At some point during the evening when we find ourselves starving we pick up the phone and order a pizza. Then we continue watching and wake up in the middle of the night, having salivated all over the couch. Ok, well, it's not quite that bad, but it is bad. I'm never getting a TV, that's for sure!
föstudagur, júní 30, 2006
Another week
Well, another week has whooshed by without me so much as noticing it. Or almost not.
The vacation went very well. Your's truly and her boyfriend hiked in New Hampshire, scaled the abominable headwall of the Great Gulf, missed the peak of Mt. Washington on purpose, spent a memorable evening at the Lakes of the Clouds hut and hiked back to civilization in pouring rain down the Tuckerman Ravine, of late-spring skiing fame. After this totally wonderful hike we ambled/drove through Portsmouth and down to Boston where we spent almost a full day shopping and urbanizing ourselves a bit. Very nice indeed.
And Germany just won Argentina. A quarter of me (the Prussian quarter) is justifiably proud. However, the Prussian quarter is not particulatly proud of Jan Ullrich. Was ist eigentlich mit diesen Leuten los??
The vacation went very well. Your's truly and her boyfriend hiked in New Hampshire, scaled the abominable headwall of the Great Gulf, missed the peak of Mt. Washington on purpose, spent a memorable evening at the Lakes of the Clouds hut and hiked back to civilization in pouring rain down the Tuckerman Ravine, of late-spring skiing fame. After this totally wonderful hike we ambled/drove through Portsmouth and down to Boston where we spent almost a full day shopping and urbanizing ourselves a bit. Very nice indeed.
And Germany just won Argentina. A quarter of me (the Prussian quarter) is justifiably proud. However, the Prussian quarter is not particulatly proud of Jan Ullrich. Was ist eigentlich mit diesen Leuten los??
föstudagur, júní 23, 2006
This weekend
it'll be Mount Washington for Shan and I. Yes, we are going on a (mini-)vacation in the mountains of New Hampshire!!
þriðjudagur, júní 20, 2006
Merde!
I f***ed up. Big time.
Added ten minutes later:
Well, it looks like the f***-up might be fixable, at least partially.
Added ten minutes later:
Well, it looks like the f***-up might be fixable, at least partially.
mánudagur, júní 19, 2006
Pink orgy
I was VERY surprised to see the Moggi front page all pink today. Then I read this post and realized why it is so. See my friend Sif second from left on the picture? I'm so proud of her and the other women and men in the Femínistafélag who are so diligent and innovative working for equal rights of men and women. Go girls, and go Moggi!
laugardagur, júní 17, 2006
Happy 17th!
mbl.is tells me it's been rather miserable in Reykjavík today, rainy and cold. I'm sure my Icelandic friends celebrating the national day in Reykjavik will feel a lot better hearing about my balmy summer day in Ithaca; the temperature is reaching broiling point and if I weren't such an exceptionally conscientious grad student (hóst hóst) I'd be swimming in the gorge right now... right, that's where I was headed...
Helvítis bömmer er það annars að hafa 17da á laugardegi, ekkert auka frí. Algjört frat.
Helvítis bömmer er það annars að hafa 17da á laugardegi, ekkert auka frí. Algjört frat.
fimmtudagur, júní 15, 2006
The bike
About three weeks ago I bought a road bike of this variety. This was done after lengthy considerations and even lengthier considerations have followed. See, it's not enough to get a bike. You need a bike computer (to keep track of your speed, distance, average speed, total distance covered etc. etc.), padded shorts (to retain the functionality of your nether regions), a bike jersey with pockets on the back (so you don't have to carry your house keys stuffed into your padded shorts), clipless pedals, shoes to go with the clipless pedals, biking gloves and even biking socks! Getting all this stuff, being an avid online shopper, has proven strenuous. Too small, too large, out of stock and not bothering to let us know, attitude from staff who think they're doing you a favor allowing you to buy their overpriced-but-available stuff from them... úff.
And in spite of all this, I find myself having covered a lot of ground on my new bike (in my sneakers and Shan´s old crash shorts) and slowly, walking up that monstrous hill on the way to school in the mornings is getting easier.
And in spite of all this, I find myself having covered a lot of ground on my new bike (in my sneakers and Shan´s old crash shorts) and slowly, walking up that monstrous hill on the way to school in the mornings is getting easier.
þriðjudagur, júní 06, 2006
The Icelandic Library
No, not dead yet.
Some of you might know that Cornell has a large collection of Icelandic books. Browsing in the catalog, I came across this.
Some of you might know that Cornell has a large collection of Icelandic books. Browsing in the catalog, I came across this.
laugardagur, maí 20, 2006
Citing the obvious:
In case y'all hadn't noticed, my two last posts have been all about sympathy hunting. And yet I haven't gotten any. I am deeply hurt and offended.
föstudagur, maí 19, 2006
Attempts at well-being
Earlier today I subscribed to Yoga Journal. By this time next year I'll probably be (oh, hvurn djö heitir þetta...)... levitating my way around town.
The cold
I'm at home nursing a cold the second day in a row. It's really beyond me why I get the cold so often. This one started on Tuesday night when I could literally feel my chest getting constricted, from one second to the next. I was walking across the living room floor.
Anyway, my Throat Coat tea is brewing on the desk next to me and I'm all bundled up in woolen sweaters, ski socks, scarfs and even my favorite elf hat. Having a cold isn't all bad, it's an excuse to wear your favorite winter hat in the middle of the summer.
Otherwise, nothing much is new. I'm listening to Israel Kamakawiwo'ole (I've been practicing for a week now and I still can't get his last name into my long-term memory) and Nick Cave, solving sudokus and generally wasting time. Shame on me.
Anyway, my Throat Coat tea is brewing on the desk next to me and I'm all bundled up in woolen sweaters, ski socks, scarfs and even my favorite elf hat. Having a cold isn't all bad, it's an excuse to wear your favorite winter hat in the middle of the summer.
Otherwise, nothing much is new. I'm listening to Israel Kamakawiwo'ole (I've been practicing for a week now and I still can't get his last name into my long-term memory) and Nick Cave, solving sudokus and generally wasting time. Shame on me.
miðvikudagur, maí 17, 2006
Til lykke med dagen!
Today is the Norwegian National Day. Unfortunately I always missed the celebrations in Longyearbyen.
Dad and Sigga came and went and we miss them. We had a great time and even took them to the Dinosaur BBQ in Syracuse. We also had the lamb that they brought with them... it was incredibly delicious. So are the pepper-sweets they brought. And I'm currently reading "Draumalandið" and like it a lot. The next visitor, my dear mother, will be here shortly and I'm already planning activities for us. Having visitors is such a fabulous way to spend time! Consider yourself welcome.
The weekend was spent in Delaware visiting Shan's mother. As you remember, her apartment suffered smoke damage recently when another apartment in her building caught fire. They're cleaning the mess now and it seems Charlotte got incredibly lucky, with very little damage that thorough cleaning can't fix. That's so great.
Since last post I have also been notified that I got, fortunately, one of the five grants I had applied for to do fieldwork in the Philippines for my thesis research next winter. My joy over the news was augmented by the fact that I got the largest grant I applied for and I got more money than I asked for! Spennó spennó and I'm going to the Philippines for 3-4 weeks in January. Yay!
In the meantime, I have to process my samples from Hawaii. Currently I'm rigging a vacuum system in a lab on the other side of campus... and nothing works! That's of course not strictly true but I'm having some persistent problems that I haven't been able to work around yet. Annoying. But, what else is new??
I have also been forewarned that I might find myself being the only grad student physically present in my lab next winter. Now that sounds just awful.
Dad and Sigga came and went and we miss them. We had a great time and even took them to the Dinosaur BBQ in Syracuse. We also had the lamb that they brought with them... it was incredibly delicious. So are the pepper-sweets they brought. And I'm currently reading "Draumalandið" and like it a lot. The next visitor, my dear mother, will be here shortly and I'm already planning activities for us. Having visitors is such a fabulous way to spend time! Consider yourself welcome.
The weekend was spent in Delaware visiting Shan's mother. As you remember, her apartment suffered smoke damage recently when another apartment in her building caught fire. They're cleaning the mess now and it seems Charlotte got incredibly lucky, with very little damage that thorough cleaning can't fix. That's so great.
Since last post I have also been notified that I got, fortunately, one of the five grants I had applied for to do fieldwork in the Philippines for my thesis research next winter. My joy over the news was augmented by the fact that I got the largest grant I applied for and I got more money than I asked for! Spennó spennó and I'm going to the Philippines for 3-4 weeks in January. Yay!
In the meantime, I have to process my samples from Hawaii. Currently I'm rigging a vacuum system in a lab on the other side of campus... and nothing works! That's of course not strictly true but I'm having some persistent problems that I haven't been able to work around yet. Annoying. But, what else is new??
I have also been forewarned that I might find myself being the only grad student physically present in my lab next winter. Now that sounds just awful.
fimmtudagur, maí 04, 2006
Some history and a visit
My dad and Sigga are coming for a visit today. I'm looking forward to seeing them so much.
Last night Shan and I watched The Fog of War. A most interesting movie and history lesson.
Last night Shan and I watched The Fog of War. A most interesting movie and history lesson.
laugardagur, apríl 29, 2006
mánudagur, apríl 24, 2006
First practice
Yesterday was historic, as it was the day when I acquired sufficient proficiency in strumming the ukulele to make it (almost) through an entire song. I was duly accompanied by Shan, who didn't take long to pick up the two chords on his guitar. World dominance can't be far off!
Eloquent poverty
miðvikudagur, apríl 19, 2006
þriðjudagur, apríl 18, 2006
Back in the cottage
This morning I had a nap in my own bed in Ithaca, NY. The best boyfriend in the world picked me up at the airport after my red-eye flight from Hawaii. It's good to be home again.
mánudagur, apríl 17, 2006
He'e nalu
In the interest of creating my own Hawaiian traditions, I went surfing, he'e nalu, on my last whole day, for the time being at least, in Hawaii. Two of the students came along, Katie who played the beach bum part and John, who played the surf bum part. We rented boards (long boards, 9 ft) and were in the water pretty much all morning. The long board was about a million times more maneuverable than the short board I used last year and although the bottom at Kahalu'u Beach Park, where we spent the day, was no less rocky than at Pine Trees, where Nona and I went surfing last year, it didn't really matter, because I didn't keep falling off the board. Very nice.
After a while of sitting on the boards and watching the locals ride one small wave after the other in to shore John and I decided we had to do something. He already knows how to do this stuff but I needed some assistance, especially since I was having a hard time paddling fast enough to catch the waves. So, John gave me a push and that way I was able to stand up on my board for the first time and ride like... half a second, maybe, before splashing into the water, and... wow, what a thrill! The next time I caught a wave I actually managed to stand an itty bit longer and might even have ridden the wave even further if this thing called the shore hadn't been in my way. Yes, I rode straight into the rocks on the shore and almost into a small church! The result: Numerous small scratches on my legs and arms, plus a 2-inch cut on my right foot. Haha, I'm a genius!
Anyway, here are some pictures that John and Katie took of me on the beach today:
Before:
After:
After a while of sitting on the boards and watching the locals ride one small wave after the other in to shore John and I decided we had to do something. He already knows how to do this stuff but I needed some assistance, especially since I was having a hard time paddling fast enough to catch the waves. So, John gave me a push and that way I was able to stand up on my board for the first time and ride like... half a second, maybe, before splashing into the water, and... wow, what a thrill! The next time I caught a wave I actually managed to stand an itty bit longer and might even have ridden the wave even further if this thing called the shore hadn't been in my way. Yes, I rode straight into the rocks on the shore and almost into a small church! The result: Numerous small scratches on my legs and arms, plus a 2-inch cut on my right foot. Haha, I'm a genius!
Anyway, here are some pictures that John and Katie took of me on the beach today:
Before:
After:
föstudagur, apríl 14, 2006
Blowin' in the wind
My fellow Icelanders: Do you remember how the wind sometimes blew so hard in Iceland that when you were a kid going to school you had to grab the nearest streetlamp to save yourself from being blown over the strait to Greenland? Do you remember how you spent countless days as a child watching the local rescue squad trying to save rooftops from being blown off the houses across the street? Do you remember how the window panes used to bulge with the force of the storm? Well, welcome to an early summer gust in Waimea town, Big Island of Hawaii.
I bought my first instrument ever today. It's a beautiful Hawaiian ukulele, and I can't wait to sit down and learn the ropes. Shan and I already scheduled our first gig at the local brewery pub next Friday. You think I'll learn to play this thing by then?
I bought my first instrument ever today. It's a beautiful Hawaiian ukulele, and I can't wait to sit down and learn the ropes. Shan and I already scheduled our first gig at the local brewery pub next Friday. You think I'll learn to play this thing by then?
Fire in Wilmington
Something bad happened in Wilmington, Delaware, today. An apartment in the condo where Shan's mum lives caught fire and her apartment was directly in harm's way. Fortunately Charlotte wasn't in the apartment when the fire happened. I just hope the damage to her apartment wasn't severe.
fimmtudagur, apríl 13, 2006
A day in the life
I have not left the house. I had fruit and ice cream for dinner. I took a nap before noon. I watched The Lion King and Big this evening.
Tomorrow life as an adult resumes. Wake up at 6:30 am. OMG.
Tomorrow life as an adult resumes. Wake up at 6:30 am. OMG.
mánudagur, apríl 10, 2006
laugardagur, apríl 08, 2006
Heimweh
I think the Germans got it absolutely right when it comes to being homesick. Their word for the feeling is the best.
föstudagur, apríl 07, 2006
The joy, the joy
Seen in the bathroom on my last visit there:
"STOP pissing on the floor!
I've stepped in it twice!
Ben and Dan"
It's hard not to piss on the floor when laughing so hard!
PS: Most of you might not be aware of the fact that while I'm in Hawai'i, I live in a house with 12 college students, two faculty members, their 4- and 8-year old daughters and a program assistant. This obviously complicates the task of finding out who pissed on the floor...
"STOP pissing on the floor!
I've stepped in it twice!
Ben and Dan"
It's hard not to piss on the floor when laughing so hard!
PS: Most of you might not be aware of the fact that while I'm in Hawai'i, I live in a house with 12 college students, two faculty members, their 4- and 8-year old daughters and a program assistant. This obviously complicates the task of finding out who pissed on the floor...
Mogglenska
Let me quote mbl.is's current news:
"Geir H. Haarde, formaður Sjálfstæðisflokksins og utanríkisráðherra, voirðisaukaskatti og vörugjöldum verði hægt að lækka verð á matvælum hér á landi frá og með næsta ári. Þetta kom fram í máli hans við setningu flokksráðs-, foi hans við setningu flokksráðs-, formanna- og frambjóðendafundar flokksins á Akureyri í dag."
Now, is that supposed to be Icelandic??
"Geir H. Haarde, formaður Sjálfstæðisflokksins og utanríkisráðherra, voirðisaukaskatti og vörugjöldum verði hægt að lækka verð á matvælum hér á landi frá og með næsta ári. Þetta kom fram í máli hans við setningu flokksráðs-, foi hans við setningu flokksráðs-, formanna- og frambjóðendafundar flokksins á Akureyri í dag."
Now, is that supposed to be Icelandic??
On dinner and normalness
Appetizer: Tortilla chips w. guacamole, bits of fresh pineapple
Main course: Fried vegetables w. rice, salad, beer
Dessert: Tortilla chips w/o guacamole, chocolate-Macadamia nut icecream w. strawberries, tortilla chips
And now, may I go and vomit?
When we got in from the field today I tossed the car keys into the garbage. Then I spent the next half-hour looking for them and finally came to terms with the fact I'd have to go digging through the trash. Don't even try to tell me that I'm normal.
Main course: Fried vegetables w. rice, salad, beer
Dessert: Tortilla chips w/o guacamole, chocolate-Macadamia nut icecream w. strawberries, tortilla chips
And now, may I go and vomit?
When we got in from the field today I tossed the car keys into the garbage. Then I spent the next half-hour looking for them and finally came to terms with the fact I'd have to go digging through the trash. Don't even try to tell me that I'm normal.
fimmtudagur, apríl 06, 2006
Oliana the scientist
Your Hawaiian Name is: |
 |
| You Should Get a PhD in Science (like chemistry, math, or engineering) |
 You're both smart and innovative when it comes to ideas. Maybe you'll find a cure for cancer - or develop the latest underground drug. |
miðvikudagur, apríl 05, 2006
mánudagur, apríl 03, 2006
Naue aku naue la naue i ke hoa!
Not only did we practice taro farming and ginger extermination this weekend, we also learned a new chant in Hawaiian and saw up (pretty) close the state's tallest waterfall. Nicht schlecht, as the German in me would remark.
Now, in order to get into the valley one first has to drive to the famous Waipi'o Valley lookout, where the ground all of a sudden drops in front of you and this incredible vista opens up. The road down is every bit as precipitous as one would fear looking at the opposite side of the valley, in fact one Internet reference gives the grade as 25%!! Whether that is true or not I shan't say, but I do know that I've never seen a paved road as steep. In places it feels like you could put your arm out to the road in front of you and still be vertical. Some of us did an improvised triangulation of the grade, but since we haven't figured out how long Katie's sandals are the results are still pending.
On the way down we practiced a chant we were taught for the occasion, a chant where we ask our hosts a permission to enter their land. Hawaiian is a pretty language but a pretty tough one to learn for Indo-European ears, so it took a while before we were able to memorize the six lines required. Arriving at our accomodations we chanted until the locals were convinced that we really wanted to come see them (or until they'd had enough of our bad Hawaiian), and after the traditional greetings we immediately got ready for the loi, or taro fields. A short walk took us there and before long we were freeing taro plants of all sizes from the company of weeds, algal mats and snail eggs. Taro is grown in water in the valley and a real mudfight was a natural consequence of this fact. Not even the old-fart TA was exempt from the mudthrowing and now everyone in the course is getting a C- or worse. Or maybe not.
After a hard mudfight we hiked a little farther up along the stream to a great little swimming hole. Everyone donned their bathing suits and washed the mud off, but I'm a grad student and thus naturally never able to relax and stop working. Instead I pulled out my water-sampling equipment and secured a sample for my venerable Ph.D. thesis research.
It seems I was pretty tired going down into the valley, because after we came back from the loi/swimming hole I didn't do much besides sleep. First I took a nap under a large tree on the lawn, then I passed out on the couch while waiting for dinner. After dinner I managed to play cards for a little while but by 8:45 I was in my tent, watching the stars through the skylight and enjoying the soundscape of the valley, with insects all around, birds chirping in the trees and the surf roaring in the distance.
This all happened yesterday, Saturday. Today we hiked further into Waipi'o Valley and got invited, quite unexpectedly, to a Hawaiian lunch at the taro farm where we were volunteering. Very nice. The valley looks to mine eyes even more spectacular from inside than it does from the lookout at the top of the valley; the walls are over 700 m tall and so steep as to be almost vertical, yet completely covered with vegetation and with no landslide scars visible. In addition the walls are very close together, and the overall effect on the Nordic mind is the one of a glacial valley. Except that this one isn't. I have to admit that before coming to Hawaii, I spectacularly underestimated the natural beauty and cultural richness of the islands. They're bloody amazing!!!
Now, in order to get into the valley one first has to drive to the famous Waipi'o Valley lookout, where the ground all of a sudden drops in front of you and this incredible vista opens up. The road down is every bit as precipitous as one would fear looking at the opposite side of the valley, in fact one Internet reference gives the grade as 25%!! Whether that is true or not I shan't say, but I do know that I've never seen a paved road as steep. In places it feels like you could put your arm out to the road in front of you and still be vertical. Some of us did an improvised triangulation of the grade, but since we haven't figured out how long Katie's sandals are the results are still pending.
On the way down we practiced a chant we were taught for the occasion, a chant where we ask our hosts a permission to enter their land. Hawaiian is a pretty language but a pretty tough one to learn for Indo-European ears, so it took a while before we were able to memorize the six lines required. Arriving at our accomodations we chanted until the locals were convinced that we really wanted to come see them (or until they'd had enough of our bad Hawaiian), and after the traditional greetings we immediately got ready for the loi, or taro fields. A short walk took us there and before long we were freeing taro plants of all sizes from the company of weeds, algal mats and snail eggs. Taro is grown in water in the valley and a real mudfight was a natural consequence of this fact. Not even the old-fart TA was exempt from the mudthrowing and now everyone in the course is getting a C- or worse. Or maybe not.
After a hard mudfight we hiked a little farther up along the stream to a great little swimming hole. Everyone donned their bathing suits and washed the mud off, but I'm a grad student and thus naturally never able to relax and stop working. Instead I pulled out my water-sampling equipment and secured a sample for my venerable Ph.D. thesis research.
It seems I was pretty tired going down into the valley, because after we came back from the loi/swimming hole I didn't do much besides sleep. First I took a nap under a large tree on the lawn, then I passed out on the couch while waiting for dinner. After dinner I managed to play cards for a little while but by 8:45 I was in my tent, watching the stars through the skylight and enjoying the soundscape of the valley, with insects all around, birds chirping in the trees and the surf roaring in the distance.
This all happened yesterday, Saturday. Today we hiked further into Waipi'o Valley and got invited, quite unexpectedly, to a Hawaiian lunch at the taro farm where we were volunteering. Very nice. The valley looks to mine eyes even more spectacular from inside than it does from the lookout at the top of the valley; the walls are over 700 m tall and so steep as to be almost vertical, yet completely covered with vegetation and with no landslide scars visible. In addition the walls are very close together, and the overall effect on the Nordic mind is the one of a glacial valley. Except that this one isn't. I have to admit that before coming to Hawaii, I spectacularly underestimated the natural beauty and cultural richness of the islands. They're bloody amazing!!!
laugardagur, apríl 01, 2006
Hawaiiana
Tomorrow the anthropologist in me should be happy. I'm tagging along with the students for a weekend trip to the Waipi'o Valley where they (and presumably me too) will engage in traditional taro farming. The forecast for the weekend is thus: mud, mud, mud, and more mud. Plus (a few) mosquitoes thrown in here and there and everywhere.
Soon I will have a degree in ion chromatograph repairs and troubleshooting. This thing has some issue with the 50th state. See last year's posts for recaps on its abysmal behaviour.
Soon I will have a degree in ion chromatograph repairs and troubleshooting. This thing has some issue with the 50th state. See last year's posts for recaps on its abysmal behaviour.
föstudagur, mars 31, 2006
Ici, c'est moi
I couldn't have said this better myself:
Again, shamelessly stolen from Stína.
| You are a Self-Discoverer |
 You're not religious, but you've created your own kind of spirituality. Introspective and thoughtful, you tend to look inward for the divine. You are distrusting of all forms of organized religion. You especially dislike religious gurus and leaders, who you feel are charlatans. |
Again, shamelessly stolen from Stína.
fimmtudagur, mars 30, 2006
Back on the Big Island
It did stop raining, if only for two days, and I made it to the Waimea Canyon. But even if my wishes were granted, Gunnar Hrafn's wont be. That is of course only because I'm an evil person.
Friday was actually nice enough that I went to the beach for a little while, before having lunch at a ridiculous tourist trap claiming to be the nicest little restaurant this side of eternity. Afterwards I made my way to the airport in Lihue to pick up my pal Chris(-topher) who was going to help me with fieldwork in the canyon and surrounding areas. I hadn't seen Chris for a year and a half, but we first met at a conference in Chile in late 2004. By Friday I had been driving around Kaua'i by myself for five days and was showing alarming symptoms of losing my mind (if it hadn't been for "My Life", read by the author, I'd probably be tucked away in some asylum by now) so Chris' company was most welcome.
On Saturday we made our way into the Waimea Canyon and got an incredible lot of sampling done. Even if the heavens spared us rain on Friday and Saturday every little soil pore on the island was full of water and the rivers were still huge. We did make an honest attempt to ford the Waimea river in the canyon but I realized, one step into the river and with water up to my crotch, that it wouldn't be a good idea. Not that it mattered, all the tributaries that were bone-dry last year were raging torrents this time and I got more samples than I ever imagined.
We just made it out of the canyon before dark and soon thereafter the clouds started rolling in. During the night we had the most awesome thunderstorm I've ever been in, the lightnings lit up the cabin and the thunder rocked the ground. Torrential rain accompanied the storm and lasted uninterrupted until I left the island on Monday morning.
By now the biogeochemistry class has begun here on the Big Island and thereby also my official TA duties. Ten of the twelve students have already taken the one-semester long biogeo class that I TA-ed last semester, so I think I'll have a pretty easy time this year. Nice.
Friday was actually nice enough that I went to the beach for a little while, before having lunch at a ridiculous tourist trap claiming to be the nicest little restaurant this side of eternity. Afterwards I made my way to the airport in Lihue to pick up my pal Chris(-topher) who was going to help me with fieldwork in the canyon and surrounding areas. I hadn't seen Chris for a year and a half, but we first met at a conference in Chile in late 2004. By Friday I had been driving around Kaua'i by myself for five days and was showing alarming symptoms of losing my mind (if it hadn't been for "My Life", read by the author, I'd probably be tucked away in some asylum by now) so Chris' company was most welcome.
On Saturday we made our way into the Waimea Canyon and got an incredible lot of sampling done. Even if the heavens spared us rain on Friday and Saturday every little soil pore on the island was full of water and the rivers were still huge. We did make an honest attempt to ford the Waimea river in the canyon but I realized, one step into the river and with water up to my crotch, that it wouldn't be a good idea. Not that it mattered, all the tributaries that were bone-dry last year were raging torrents this time and I got more samples than I ever imagined.
We just made it out of the canyon before dark and soon thereafter the clouds started rolling in. During the night we had the most awesome thunderstorm I've ever been in, the lightnings lit up the cabin and the thunder rocked the ground. Torrential rain accompanied the storm and lasted uninterrupted until I left the island on Monday morning.
By now the biogeochemistry class has begun here on the Big Island and thereby also my official TA duties. Ten of the twelve students have already taken the one-semester long biogeo class that I TA-ed last semester, so I think I'll have a pretty easy time this year. Nice.
miðvikudagur, mars 22, 2006
Here comes the rain again
I guess I made it over to the computer room during a lull in the rain. It was pouring when I returned to the B&B, when I showered (outside, in the loveliest shower ever known to (wo-)man) it stayed dry and now it's absolutely pouring again, like I've rarely seen it. Heavy rain has in fact been pounding on the islands for weeks now, causing landslides, floods and even a dam to break here on Kaua'i last week, killing several people.
Because of this, no hiking permits are being issued for the Kalalau Trail or Waimea Canyon. Ehemm... last year we hiked the Kalalau Trail without a permit, largely because we had no idea that one was needed until we got to the trailhead. Now, however, I don't think I'm going in, both because of the permit issue but mostly because of... the rain! I hiked the first 2 miles today, a popular dayhike, and the trail was both incredibly slick and muddy. This being the fine part of the trail, I shudder to think what the rest of it is like.
Hopefully it'll clear up by Friday. I'd hate to miss the hike into Waimea Canyon.
Because of this, no hiking permits are being issued for the Kalalau Trail or Waimea Canyon. Ehemm... last year we hiked the Kalalau Trail without a permit, largely because we had no idea that one was needed until we got to the trailhead. Now, however, I don't think I'm going in, both because of the permit issue but mostly because of... the rain! I hiked the first 2 miles today, a popular dayhike, and the trail was both incredibly slick and muddy. This being the fine part of the trail, I shudder to think what the rest of it is like.
Hopefully it'll clear up by Friday. I'd hate to miss the hike into Waimea Canyon.
sunnudagur, mars 19, 2006
Chasing water
First things first: I have a new nephew. His name is Bessi and he's as cute as any newborn baby I've ever seen. Well, unfortunately I haven't seen him yet but I got a picture of him in the mail. Congratulations, Teitur and Ingunn and Auður!!
Second things second: I finally made it to Hawaii. Miracles still happen.
Third things... whatever. My head is spinning as I write this on my laptop in the Cornell mansion in Waimea town. Today and yesterday I drove over 200 miles on all kinds of roads and made it all the way around the Big Island. See, it's been raining a lot in Hawaii recently and I was out hunting for water in streams that normally run bone-dry. (Think of the Big Island as Reykjanes. The rocks are like a sponge and it has to rain a LOT before the water starts running on the surface. And, if it rains that much, you're likely to get floods. This makes the life of a grad student looking for surface water on the island very... interesting). After racing past the streams I know to run even if it hasn't been raining cats and dogs for a week (there are those streams, but not too many and I have samples from most all of them already) I found one tiny stream running south of Hilo.
But the kale wasn't sopið even if I was in the spoon (or something to that effect). Before I could start sampling I ran into this biker with a flat tire, 200$ biking shoes and a 2000$ bike. He invited himself for a ride home in my van and me being a well-brought up girl I gave him the ride. I also took the front wheel off his bike because he couldn't do it himself. But he had a sheep in the front yard and was therefore forgiven. Well, he was already forgiven when he asked if Cornell was in Chicago. Hail the Safety Ivy! Who would ever ask if Harvard was in Chicago??
Back where I started, I parked the van in somebody's driveway and hiked the few yards to the stream. I had barely gotten my sampling stuff out of my sack when someone drove into the driveway, so skillfully blocked by yours sincerely. As I walked back to move the car, this someone came walking towards me: a heavily tattoed guy with burned teeth and in a bad mood. "Who do you think you are, trespassing on private property? I own this house, and the stream, and the house on the other side of the stream, and... oh, you're a scientist?". And after promising him that I wasn't going to drown myself in the river (not that anyone could have, the stream simply wasn't up to the task) and that I didn't have any open cuts through which I could contract the local deadly disease and that I wouldn't sue him in any case, he allowed me to sample his stream. He even allowed me to park in his yard. And, best of all, his dog quit barking at me.
After spending the night at a campground in Volcanoes National Park, I continued my quest for water. Trials and errors and long, winding backroads took me to Wood Valley on the flanks of Mauna Loa, where the maps promised a whole bunch of ephemereal streams. Alas, none were up. Ever the optimist, I sampled a puddle in one dry streambed but the pH-reading on it showed me that it was most likely rainwater. What the hell, I'll just sample it anyway. And I drove back to the park, cursing all this uncooperative water, and went for a hike in Kilauea Iki crater.
This crater dates back to 1959. Although the floor of it, a veritable ocean of smooth, black lava, is solid and cold now there is still a lot of heat in the ground underneath and steam rises everywhere from the ground. The sun was out when I started my hike along the crater rim but by the time I descended into the crater rain started falling and I hiked across the floor of the crater in howling wind and pouring rain. Just like home in Iceland. In fact, I learned about this crater in my petrology class back at the University of Iceland and I was really excited to finally stand in the middle of it. A thunderstorm came in as I crossed the crater floor and I scared myself imagining that the volcano was waking up from it's long sleep. The dramatic effect of the thunder was absolutely frightening
The afternoon saw more driving around in circles through pouring rain, looking for water that didn't want to flow. Before I knew it I was on the west coast driving back to Waimea. Night had fallen and then all of a sudden the road to Waimea is blocked by cops, closed because of flash flooding. Just what I needed! I shifted my course towards the village of Waikoloa, where the floodwaters rushed through town, and got a much-coveted sample of surface runoff from the west coast. Yay! Us geologists are so weird, aren't we?
Tomorrow it better be raining still because I'm going out to sample some more. Monday I'm off to Kaua'i, the closest place I've ever been to Heaven on this Earth. This island is the oldest of the large Hawaiian islands and it's absolutely amazingly beautiful. I'll be there for a week sampling rivers and hiking, first along the Kalalau trail (by myself) and then in the Waimea Canyon (with a field assistant). As I said in a previous post, life does suck when one is a geologist. Right?
Second things second: I finally made it to Hawaii. Miracles still happen.
Third things... whatever. My head is spinning as I write this on my laptop in the Cornell mansion in Waimea town. Today and yesterday I drove over 200 miles on all kinds of roads and made it all the way around the Big Island. See, it's been raining a lot in Hawaii recently and I was out hunting for water in streams that normally run bone-dry. (Think of the Big Island as Reykjanes. The rocks are like a sponge and it has to rain a LOT before the water starts running on the surface. And, if it rains that much, you're likely to get floods. This makes the life of a grad student looking for surface water on the island very... interesting). After racing past the streams I know to run even if it hasn't been raining cats and dogs for a week (there are those streams, but not too many and I have samples from most all of them already) I found one tiny stream running south of Hilo.
But the kale wasn't sopið even if I was in the spoon (or something to that effect). Before I could start sampling I ran into this biker with a flat tire, 200$ biking shoes and a 2000$ bike. He invited himself for a ride home in my van and me being a well-brought up girl I gave him the ride. I also took the front wheel off his bike because he couldn't do it himself. But he had a sheep in the front yard and was therefore forgiven. Well, he was already forgiven when he asked if Cornell was in Chicago. Hail the Safety Ivy! Who would ever ask if Harvard was in Chicago??
Back where I started, I parked the van in somebody's driveway and hiked the few yards to the stream. I had barely gotten my sampling stuff out of my sack when someone drove into the driveway, so skillfully blocked by yours sincerely. As I walked back to move the car, this someone came walking towards me: a heavily tattoed guy with burned teeth and in a bad mood. "Who do you think you are, trespassing on private property? I own this house, and the stream, and the house on the other side of the stream, and... oh, you're a scientist?". And after promising him that I wasn't going to drown myself in the river (not that anyone could have, the stream simply wasn't up to the task) and that I didn't have any open cuts through which I could contract the local deadly disease and that I wouldn't sue him in any case, he allowed me to sample his stream. He even allowed me to park in his yard. And, best of all, his dog quit barking at me.
After spending the night at a campground in Volcanoes National Park, I continued my quest for water. Trials and errors and long, winding backroads took me to Wood Valley on the flanks of Mauna Loa, where the maps promised a whole bunch of ephemereal streams. Alas, none were up. Ever the optimist, I sampled a puddle in one dry streambed but the pH-reading on it showed me that it was most likely rainwater. What the hell, I'll just sample it anyway. And I drove back to the park, cursing all this uncooperative water, and went for a hike in Kilauea Iki crater.
This crater dates back to 1959. Although the floor of it, a veritable ocean of smooth, black lava, is solid and cold now there is still a lot of heat in the ground underneath and steam rises everywhere from the ground. The sun was out when I started my hike along the crater rim but by the time I descended into the crater rain started falling and I hiked across the floor of the crater in howling wind and pouring rain. Just like home in Iceland. In fact, I learned about this crater in my petrology class back at the University of Iceland and I was really excited to finally stand in the middle of it. A thunderstorm came in as I crossed the crater floor and I scared myself imagining that the volcano was waking up from it's long sleep. The dramatic effect of the thunder was absolutely frightening
The afternoon saw more driving around in circles through pouring rain, looking for water that didn't want to flow. Before I knew it I was on the west coast driving back to Waimea. Night had fallen and then all of a sudden the road to Waimea is blocked by cops, closed because of flash flooding. Just what I needed! I shifted my course towards the village of Waikoloa, where the floodwaters rushed through town, and got a much-coveted sample of surface runoff from the west coast. Yay! Us geologists are so weird, aren't we?
Tomorrow it better be raining still because I'm going out to sample some more. Monday I'm off to Kaua'i, the closest place I've ever been to Heaven on this Earth. This island is the oldest of the large Hawaiian islands and it's absolutely amazingly beautiful. I'll be there for a week sampling rivers and hiking, first along the Kalalau trail (by myself) and then in the Waimea Canyon (with a field assistant). As I said in a previous post, life does suck when one is a geologist. Right?
þriðjudagur, mars 14, 2006
Still bound
but not because of storms this time:
"When do I need to get up to catch my flight?" thought the woman to herself as she was setting the alarm clock. "It leaves at 8 am so I need to be at the airport at 7 am, getting there takes a little over an hour so I need to get up at... 5:30 am. Damn, CTB doesn't open until 6 am so I'll have to do the trip without coffee."
Next thing this woman knows, her alarm goes off. As she hits the snooze button she takes a quick look at the display and jumps screaming out of bed. 6:30 am, and she's missing the flight.
How 5:30 in my head translates into 6:30 in my fingers I do not know. I wonder if they have medicine for this? If there is such a thing as flight-missing syndrome, I may well be the first diagnosed patient.
"When do I need to get up to catch my flight?" thought the woman to herself as she was setting the alarm clock. "It leaves at 8 am so I need to be at the airport at 7 am, getting there takes a little over an hour so I need to get up at... 5:30 am. Damn, CTB doesn't open until 6 am so I'll have to do the trip without coffee."
Next thing this woman knows, her alarm goes off. As she hits the snooze button she takes a quick look at the display and jumps screaming out of bed. 6:30 am, and she's missing the flight.
How 5:30 in my head translates into 6:30 in my fingers I do not know. I wonder if they have medicine for this? If there is such a thing as flight-missing syndrome, I may well be the first diagnosed patient.
mánudagur, mars 13, 2006
Storm-bound
Still in good ol'Ithaca. Storms upended everything in Chicago (and many other places) so my flight out of Syracuse was delayed by a lot so I would have missed my connections to Hawaii. Chicago isn't my idea of a nice mid-week getaway, therefore I am sitting at my desk right now instead of in a cramped airplane/-port seat. Can't say I'm terribly upset about that. The lad at the airport was kind enough to even check me in for tomorrow's flights so now all I'll have to do is swing by and wave him graciously as I deliver my bags. Oh, the glamour, the glamour. The downside, of course, is that this will take place at 7 am tomorrow morning, a most ungodly time and one at which I've never managed to look particularly glamorous.
miðvikudagur, mars 08, 2006
Another odyssey
My second trip to Hawaii is coming up. Next Monday, 9:55 am local time, I'm flying out of Syracuse, heading for the Pacific... oh yeah. Just like last year, I'm going there to conduct field work for my research (collecting water from rivers and groundwater wells on the Big Island and Kaua'i) and to TA (which isn't strictly a verb since it stands for "Teaching Assistant") my advisor's class, Intro to the biogeochemistry of Hawaii. The major difference this time is that I won't be gone for almost two months but only 5 weeks. That's so much better.
The third odyssey: Philippines in December/January. Am currently pumping out grant applications to fund that fieldwork.
Being a geologist sucks, doesn't it?
The third odyssey: Philippines in December/January. Am currently pumping out grant applications to fund that fieldwork.
Being a geologist sucks, doesn't it?
You're Clementine! You're very fun and creative
and have a very magnetic personality, but you
might be projecting an image to the world
without even really knowhing who you are.
Which Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind character are you?
brought to you by Quizilla
fimmtudagur, mars 02, 2006
Snow snow
The heavens have dumped over 2 inches of fluffy snow on us today so the only humane thing to do this evening is to go skiing. Sounds like everyone is going and it should be fun!
From another front: today I totally f***ed up more than half of the samples that I've been preparing for isotope analysis for the last three days. Not very clever of me and entirely avoidable. The good thing about it, of course, is that now I can spend even MORE time in the clean lab, wearing a hairnet and safety goggles. Yay!!
From another front: today I totally f***ed up more than half of the samples that I've been preparing for isotope analysis for the last three days. Not very clever of me and entirely avoidable. The good thing about it, of course, is that now I can spend even MORE time in the clean lab, wearing a hairnet and safety goggles. Yay!!
mánudagur, febrúar 27, 2006
föstudagur, febrúar 24, 2006
Snow!!
Even if Ithaca is pretty grey these days, Vermont has allegedly been getting dumped with snow in those last few days. That's why Shan and I decided to dump everything we're doing and go skiing in Vermont over the weekend. Habblaha. Live well and prosper.
miðvikudagur, febrúar 22, 2006
Another useless test
 | You scored as Bomb. Your death will be by bombing. You will probably be an innocent bystander, not doing anything wrong and not a person who was targeted at, just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
How Will You Die?? created with QuizFarm.com |
Well, I'm glad that I most likely will not be eaten and that I most likely will not drown. A cut throat doesn't sound too charming either.
þriðjudagur, febrúar 21, 2006
Birthday blog for my sheep-loyal readers
Why can't we have birthday more than once a year?? The treatment I got yesterday, which in case you didn't know was my birthday, was extraordinary.
First of all, I got my co-habitator's approval of sleeping in, which means I showed up at work around noon. This was after I had brunch from the nearby bagel shop, brought to me by said co-habitator. At work I got plenty of happy birthday wishes and eager to make them all come true, I left work before putting in my due 8 hours. Shame on me! A huge flower bouquet was waiting for me in the car as Shan came to pick me up and the three of us took off to Syracuse and the Dinosaur BBQ without further delay. After dinner in our favorite Christian biker joint (which was full to the brim last night, as presumably always) we then raced the clock back to Ithaca and Madeline's, where my favorite molten chocolate cake is to be had.
Sehr schön, ja. And thanks for all the good wishes,
your oldfart Herdis
First of all, I got my co-habitator's approval of sleeping in, which means I showed up at work around noon. This was after I had brunch from the nearby bagel shop, brought to me by said co-habitator. At work I got plenty of happy birthday wishes and eager to make them all come true, I left work before putting in my due 8 hours. Shame on me! A huge flower bouquet was waiting for me in the car as Shan came to pick me up and the three of us took off to Syracuse and the Dinosaur BBQ without further delay. After dinner in our favorite Christian biker joint (which was full to the brim last night, as presumably always) we then raced the clock back to Ithaca and Madeline's, where my favorite molten chocolate cake is to be had.
Sehr schön, ja. And thanks for all the good wishes,
your oldfart Herdis
miðvikudagur, febrúar 15, 2006
My first times and my last time
Ran my first road race the other day. Much to my surprise I came in nr. 535 out of 729 runners, not too bad altogether. At least I got to the post-race chili pots before about 200 other people did!
Later that day I raced my left ski down a bumpy hill for the first time. Just a few seconds later I went looking for my right ski in the woods for the first time too. That time will also be the last time I go skiing without having any leashes to keep my skis attached to my foot. I will not run the risk of having them successfully decide to take off on their own again.
Later that day I raced my left ski down a bumpy hill for the first time. Just a few seconds later I went looking for my right ski in the woods for the first time too. That time will also be the last time I go skiing without having any leashes to keep my skis attached to my foot. I will not run the risk of having them successfully decide to take off on their own again.
Johari - Nohari
Try this:
my positive side
NB: I changed the URL so that the Icelandic letters shouldn't be an issue anymore.
added on Feb. 16th:
and try this too (if you're brave):
my negative side
my positive side
NB: I changed the URL so that the Icelandic letters shouldn't be an issue anymore.
added on Feb. 16th:
and try this too (if you're brave):
my negative side
miðvikudagur, febrúar 08, 2006
Deluxe Firechief and his friends
All hail to Eyja for making my day (or night, as it is well past midnight here). I'm so relieved to see that little children aren't the only ones who can enjoy wearing Ladybug or Deluxe Firechief or Tall Green Turtle rainboots. Now I'm hoping that Mr. Taxman will have some monies for me... plísplísplís...
sunnudagur, febrúar 05, 2006
In a similar vein: The bishop of Iceland made a controversial statement about the civil rights of gays a few weeks ago. Should we allow our concern for the bishop's feelings to outlaw any kind of discussion about gay people's rights to religious marriage?
As far as I know, gays having any kind of civil rights will offend fundamentalist Christians, be they in Iceland or elsewhere. If these people came forward with vandalism against reporters who write on gay rights or artists who include gay people in their artwork, would we Icelanders be willing to succumb to the violence and make gay people and their lives a taboo in order not to offend a particular religion?
Peaceful demonstrations and dialogue are not religious bullying. Death threats and acts of violence are. By giving in to religious bullying we are only asking for an escalation of the problem. I think that this is the road down which we are headed if we go with the claims that publishing these cartoons was wrong. In a society with free speech, you have to accept the fact that at some point you are going to get offended. You might not like everything that you see and hear, but you do not have the right to prevent people from expressing their believes and ideas. If one group comes forward and bullies the rest of society into following their particular rules, we won't have to wait long until another one does so, and then another and another. Where will multiculturalism be then?
As far as I know, gays having any kind of civil rights will offend fundamentalist Christians, be they in Iceland or elsewhere. If these people came forward with vandalism against reporters who write on gay rights or artists who include gay people in their artwork, would we Icelanders be willing to succumb to the violence and make gay people and their lives a taboo in order not to offend a particular religion?
Peaceful demonstrations and dialogue are not religious bullying. Death threats and acts of violence are. By giving in to religious bullying we are only asking for an escalation of the problem. I think that this is the road down which we are headed if we go with the claims that publishing these cartoons was wrong. In a society with free speech, you have to accept the fact that at some point you are going to get offended. You might not like everything that you see and hear, but you do not have the right to prevent people from expressing their believes and ideas. If one group comes forward and bullies the rest of society into following their particular rules, we won't have to wait long until another one does so, and then another and another. Where will multiculturalism be then?
laugardagur, febrúar 04, 2006
Respect or bullyism?
Now I didn't really get up to speed on the prophet-cartoon issue until yesterday. That's what working on a Ph.D. (and spending all your time on weather.com, hoping and praying and begging and almost crying for snow) does to you. But I'm glad I finally did get up to speed on this, because it's a most interesting issue. And a somewhat frightening too.
I just read a lengthy discussion on my friend Stína's blog about the cartoons. Before I knew the word of it, I had posted a blog-size comment on her last post. Assuming that Stína won't sue me for copyright infringements, I'm reproducing (most of) the comment here:
"I am totally commited to the idea of respecting other people's beliefs and values, and I have to assume that the people around me are willing to do the same. I do not accept that fear for one's life for speaking one's mind is an unavoidable cost of living in such a society. I'm not talking about libel here. I'm talking about the right to utter your mind without having to fear for a mob to take your life.
Why did the editor of the "scum"-newspaper Jyllandsposten (btw, why did the "scum" ever enter the discussion here? You need an Order of Merit to be allowed to open your mouth in public?) post the cartoons in the first place? Bea says (and I can't get a link to the comment) it was to provoke. Wikipedia says it was in response to reports from a writer who couldn't get an artist to decorate a children book about the prophet. Now, why would a whole dozen of artists refuse an offer to decorate a book like that? For fear they might be killed by (am I allowed to call them?) extremists, for having depicted Mohammad. If this is correct, that Danish cartoon artists fear taking on an assignment to decorate a childrens' book for fear of being killed, then there is something seriously wrong.
Let's look at this from another angle. Let's think about... birth control. Is it right to have old, white, heterosexual right-wing Christian males decide for all the women in the United States, and further afield for that matter, whether they be educated about birth control use? We're talking about not offending someone's religious beliefs here. The Christian right believes that using birth control is a sin and is doing frighteningly well in imposing its view on women not only in the US, but also in African countries that need UN (i.e., US) assistance to deal with HIV. Treating African HIV spread with abstinence, because the funding agency has the power to impose its religious beliefs over the recipients of the aid? Give me a break here!
In my mind, the issue of the Danish cartoons and of birth control in the US and Africa are different sides of the same coin. Call it freedom of speech, call it freedom of religion, call it the freedom to maintain your convictions and dignity and not being bullied into giving them up."
In addition, I would like to put a link here to zombietime's collection of depictions of Mohammed through history. Looks like Jyllandsposten wasn't the first to publish drawings of the prophet at all. Scroll all the way down the page for some modern low-profile cartoons of Mohammed, but first make sure you read the intro at the top of the page.
I just read a lengthy discussion on my friend Stína's blog about the cartoons. Before I knew the word of it, I had posted a blog-size comment on her last post. Assuming that Stína won't sue me for copyright infringements, I'm reproducing (most of) the comment here:
"I am totally commited to the idea of respecting other people's beliefs and values, and I have to assume that the people around me are willing to do the same. I do not accept that fear for one's life for speaking one's mind is an unavoidable cost of living in such a society. I'm not talking about libel here. I'm talking about the right to utter your mind without having to fear for a mob to take your life.
Why did the editor of the "scum"-newspaper Jyllandsposten (btw, why did the "scum" ever enter the discussion here? You need an Order of Merit to be allowed to open your mouth in public?) post the cartoons in the first place? Bea says (and I can't get a link to the comment) it was to provoke. Wikipedia says it was in response to reports from a writer who couldn't get an artist to decorate a children book about the prophet. Now, why would a whole dozen of artists refuse an offer to decorate a book like that? For fear they might be killed by (am I allowed to call them?) extremists, for having depicted Mohammad. If this is correct, that Danish cartoon artists fear taking on an assignment to decorate a childrens' book for fear of being killed, then there is something seriously wrong.
Let's look at this from another angle. Let's think about... birth control. Is it right to have old, white, heterosexual right-wing Christian males decide for all the women in the United States, and further afield for that matter, whether they be educated about birth control use? We're talking about not offending someone's religious beliefs here. The Christian right believes that using birth control is a sin and is doing frighteningly well in imposing its view on women not only in the US, but also in African countries that need UN (i.e., US) assistance to deal with HIV. Treating African HIV spread with abstinence, because the funding agency has the power to impose its religious beliefs over the recipients of the aid? Give me a break here!
In my mind, the issue of the Danish cartoons and of birth control in the US and Africa are different sides of the same coin. Call it freedom of speech, call it freedom of religion, call it the freedom to maintain your convictions and dignity and not being bullied into giving them up."
In addition, I would like to put a link here to zombietime's collection of depictions of Mohammed through history. Looks like Jyllandsposten wasn't the first to publish drawings of the prophet at all. Scroll all the way down the page for some modern low-profile cartoons of Mohammed, but first make sure you read the intro at the top of the page.
föstudagur, febrúar 03, 2006
mánudagur, janúar 30, 2006
More cheese
Following up on the conversation about my last post: Gräddost. Or, as Bryan puts it:
"Don't tell me it's not worth fightin' for
I can't help it - there's nothin' I want more
Ya know it's true
Everything I do - I do it for you
There's no love - like your love
And no other - could give more love
There's nowhere - unless you're there
All the time - all the way"
Amen.
"Don't tell me it's not worth fightin' for
I can't help it - there's nothin' I want more
Ya know it's true
Everything I do - I do it for you
There's no love - like your love
And no other - could give more love
There's nowhere - unless you're there
All the time - all the way"
Amen.
sunnudagur, janúar 29, 2006
Red and cheese and 24
Now what could be better to round off a season of 24 than a glass of red and Brauðostur on the side?
We at Seneca Winter Resort have during the last week been obsessed with Jack Bauer, his imbecile cutie-pie daughter Kim, the radiating George Mason and the rest of the gang trying to a) start WWIII and b) stop WWIII. Today alone, we watched 6 shows. We're insane.
We at Seneca Winter Resort have during the last week been obsessed with Jack Bauer, his imbecile cutie-pie daughter Kim, the radiating George Mason and the rest of the gang trying to a) start WWIII and b) stop WWIII. Today alone, we watched 6 shows. We're insane.
fimmtudagur, janúar 26, 2006
Bragging rights
I'm a bit late in telling you, but last Monday I earned serious bragging rights. A small bird in Iceland alerted me to the fact and it's about time you got to know. Here goes. For the time being the item giving me the bragging rights is at the very top of the page. Latecomers to this post might have to scroll down a little bit as other prophets earn their bragging rights in the future.
þriðjudagur, janúar 24, 2006
In the absence of anything interesting to say,
I'm sharing this with you:
Shamlessly stolen from kristiv.
Ten Top Trivia Tips about Herdis2002!
- In a pinch, the skin from a shark can be used as herdis2002!
- People used to believe that dressing their male children as herdis2002 would protect them from evil spirits.
- Baskin Robbins once made herdis2002 flavoured ice cream.
- A rhinoceros horn is made from compacted herdis2002.
- Neil Armstrong first stepped on herdis2002 with his left foot!
- Herdis2002 is black with white stripes, not white with black stripes!
- If you don't get out of bed on the same side you got in, you will have herdis2002 for the rest of the day.
- Herdis2002 has four noses.
- It can take herdis2002 several days to move just through one tree.
- Herdis2002 can turn her stomach inside out.
Shamlessly stolen from kristiv.
miðvikudagur, janúar 18, 2006
Tagged - again
Four jobs I´ve had in my life:
Snowmobile guide (skikkelig harry!)
Tourist guide on innumerable Golden Circles and Blue Lagoon trips
TA for a bizarre assortment of classes at Cornell
Some ennui in a fish factory in Ísafjörður when I was 14
Four movies I could watch over and over (and have!):
Oklahoma (ehemm... I think I already did enough of that)
The black fingernail - a severly overlooked "Carry On" gem
Kill Bill, both parts
Finding Nemo
Four places you have lived:
Reykjavík
Garðabær (thoroughly not recommended)
Longyearbyen (thoroughly recommended - for those who are harry at heart)
La Paz
Four TV shows you love to watch:
(*are there four TV shows out there??)
Sex and the City
Frontline on NPR - only available to me on the laptop but still darn good
Any science show, such as The Elegant Universe
Any and all British crime series
Four places you have been on vacation:
Burlington, VT
Montreal, QC
Portland, OR
Na Pali Coast, HI (ok, so I took some watersamples there, but it was still a vacation...)
Four websites I visit daily:
mbl.is
Stína
Erna
The Aerospace Engineer
Four of my favourite foods:
dried mango
tex-mex chicken soup
whole-wheat pasta with pretty much anything (except for minced beef, holy Jesus!)
chocolate (and don't try to tell me it isn't food, ok?)
Four places I would rather be right now:
On the pink couch
Skiing, maybe at Jackson Hole
I wouldn't mind taking all my papers and stuff to a rustic little cabin in the middle of nowhere (i.e. backcountry, choked in snow) and sit there reading and drinking hot chocolate
In Reykjavík listening to my sister Lára's stories from New Zealand
Four bloggers I am tagging:
Lára (you need to get your blog going again, sister!)
The Aerospace Engineer (idem)
Erna (such a wonderfully rapid response last time, thanks!)
Gönzó
Snowmobile guide (skikkelig harry!)
Tourist guide on innumerable Golden Circles and Blue Lagoon trips
TA for a bizarre assortment of classes at Cornell
Some ennui in a fish factory in Ísafjörður when I was 14
Four movies I could watch over and over (and have!):
Oklahoma (ehemm... I think I already did enough of that)
The black fingernail - a severly overlooked "Carry On" gem
Kill Bill, both parts
Finding Nemo
Four places you have lived:
Reykjavík
Garðabær (thoroughly not recommended)
Longyearbyen (thoroughly recommended - for those who are harry at heart)
La Paz
Four TV shows you love to watch:
(*are there four TV shows out there??)
Sex and the City
Frontline on NPR - only available to me on the laptop but still darn good
Any science show, such as The Elegant Universe
Any and all British crime series
Four places you have been on vacation:
Burlington, VT
Montreal, QC
Portland, OR
Na Pali Coast, HI (ok, so I took some watersamples there, but it was still a vacation...)
Four websites I visit daily:
mbl.is
Stína
Erna
The Aerospace Engineer
Four of my favourite foods:
dried mango
tex-mex chicken soup
whole-wheat pasta with pretty much anything (except for minced beef, holy Jesus!)
chocolate (and don't try to tell me it isn't food, ok?)
Four places I would rather be right now:
On the pink couch
Skiing, maybe at Jackson Hole
I wouldn't mind taking all my papers and stuff to a rustic little cabin in the middle of nowhere (i.e. backcountry, choked in snow) and sit there reading and drinking hot chocolate
In Reykjavík listening to my sister Lára's stories from New Zealand
Four bloggers I am tagging:
Lára (you need to get your blog going again, sister!)
The Aerospace Engineer (idem)
Erna (such a wonderfully rapid response last time, thanks!)
Gönzó
Gem of the week
is here. Keep in mind though, when you click on the link, that mine is a geologist's blog.
Word of the week
comes from Þórdís' site: Smérkúkur. Segi það og skrifa, smérkúkur. Múahahahahahahaha, this has kept me sniggering and/or in fits of laughter since I read the post. Loosely translated... well, I'm not sure I'm up to the task here. Stína, Erna, anyone, any suggestions?
Glæsilegt!!
Það er gaman að lifa þegar góðir hlutir gerast. Og ekki skemmir fyrir að hlutaðeigandi skuli loksins taka hintinu.
mánudagur, janúar 16, 2006
Sælir náttúruunnendur!
úr pósthólfinu mínu í dag:
"Náttúruvaktin beinir þeim tillmælum til allra náttúruunnenda að þeir fjölmenni við Ráðhús Reykjavíkur klukkan 14 á morgun, þriðjudag, þegar Ólafur F. Magnússon borgarfulltrúi leggur fram tillögu sína í borgarstjórn um verndun Þjórsárvera. Á sama tíma verður stuðningsstaða við Ráðhúsið til sýna tillögunni samstöðu og hvetja borgarfulltrúa til að virða þá ómetanlegu gersemi sem Þjórsárver eru með því að greiða tillögunni atkvæði sitt.
Nú er lag, möguleiki á að þrýsta á verndun Þjórsárvera og stækkun friðlandsins. Mætum og hvetjum stjórn borgarinnar til að nýta eignaraðild sína í Landsvirkjun til verndar Þjórsárverum og varðveita þannig þjóðargersemi, svæði sem á ekki sinn líka um veröld víða, um ókomna tíð.
Lifi Þjórsárver
Náttúruvaktin"
"Náttúruvaktin beinir þeim tillmælum til allra náttúruunnenda að þeir fjölmenni við Ráðhús Reykjavíkur klukkan 14 á morgun, þriðjudag, þegar Ólafur F. Magnússon borgarfulltrúi leggur fram tillögu sína í borgarstjórn um verndun Þjórsárvera. Á sama tíma verður stuðningsstaða við Ráðhúsið til sýna tillögunni samstöðu og hvetja borgarfulltrúa til að virða þá ómetanlegu gersemi sem Þjórsárver eru með því að greiða tillögunni atkvæði sitt.
Nú er lag, möguleiki á að þrýsta á verndun Þjórsárvera og stækkun friðlandsins. Mætum og hvetjum stjórn borgarinnar til að nýta eignaraðild sína í Landsvirkjun til verndar Þjórsárverum og varðveita þannig þjóðargersemi, svæði sem á ekki sinn líka um veröld víða, um ókomna tíð.
Lifi Þjórsárver
Náttúruvaktin"
föstudagur, janúar 13, 2006
Boatbuilding and other pastimes
Finally, finally (i.e. loksins, loksins!)! At the suggestion of my lovely cohabitator we are ganging up with some friend with the aim of - ratatata - building our own boat!! A sketch is shown here. Isn't it a splendid boat? Smár en knár, that's the motto here.
The annual Snee Graduate Research Symposium was held today. That's when we students get to put together a 10-minute talk about our research, or attempts at research, and present it to anyone who wants to listen. We also feed all those in attendance, and that's why I missed all the talks in the morning (I started making the soup I had volunteered to make at midnight, reasoning that putting it off until the morning and therefore having to wake up at 7 am was an absolute impossibility for me. Thus I didn't get much sleep until 5:30, when the soup was ready and I could jump out of bed to toss the pot into the fridge. Which meant that I slept like a baby until 10:30 am. I deeply apologize.) Anyways, I gave my talk and I hear that I did pretty well. Which of course makes me happy, because I think that it's fun. It may be nerve-wrecking, but it's also a lot of fun.
Looks like my Hawaii-fieldwork might get pushed back about a month. That's good.
The annual Snee Graduate Research Symposium was held today. That's when we students get to put together a 10-minute talk about our research, or attempts at research, and present it to anyone who wants to listen. We also feed all those in attendance, and that's why I missed all the talks in the morning (I started making the soup I had volunteered to make at midnight, reasoning that putting it off until the morning and therefore having to wake up at 7 am was an absolute impossibility for me. Thus I didn't get much sleep until 5:30, when the soup was ready and I could jump out of bed to toss the pot into the fridge. Which meant that I slept like a baby until 10:30 am. I deeply apologize.) Anyways, I gave my talk and I hear that I did pretty well. Which of course makes me happy, because I think that it's fun. It may be nerve-wrecking, but it's also a lot of fun.
Looks like my Hawaii-fieldwork might get pushed back about a month. That's good.
miðvikudagur, janúar 11, 2006
Ok, I couldn't contain myself:
Your Social Dysfunction: Schizotypal You display social deficits and oddities of thinking. Your perception and communication are similar to those of a schizophrenic. | ||||
| ||||
Take this quiz at QuizGalaxy.com Please note that we aren't, nor do we claim to be, psychologists. This quiz is for fun and entertainment only. Try not to freak out about your results. |
þriðjudagur, janúar 10, 2006
Yo man!
I can't believe it's been over a week - yes, over a WEEK - since I last posted anything to this site. I guess I could have posted the results of the test I took the other day (which social dysfunction are you) but they didn't exactly lend themselves to be published. My poor shrink, if he only knew...
As usually, I could be very busy but I'm withstanding the temptation. A grad student symposium is coming up this Friday and I'll be giving a talk. Not a single slide is ready, not even the title slide. Usually I'm pretty good at making title slides and sometimes I get them done as much as 3 days in advance. Alas, not this time. My next field season in Hawaii is also coming up and I haven't even bought the plane ticket yet. Let alone started acid-washing the sample bottles, since the bottles are still in the warehouse from where I have to buy them. Efforts are under way, though, to vacuum out the other sample bottles, so I haven't been completely idle. If, that is, sending an email and then browsing online scientific supplies stores counts as not being completely idle.
A major event happened in my home the other day. Shan, my lovely cohabitator, bought a guitar, just like he has wanted to do for years. It's a beautiful guitar. I have to say that our home has become significantly more cultural since the advent of the instrument and I'm enjoying every evening serenade I get.
Well, I'll save you more gibberish until next time. Lifið heil!
As usually, I could be very busy but I'm withstanding the temptation. A grad student symposium is coming up this Friday and I'll be giving a talk. Not a single slide is ready, not even the title slide. Usually I'm pretty good at making title slides and sometimes I get them done as much as 3 days in advance. Alas, not this time. My next field season in Hawaii is also coming up and I haven't even bought the plane ticket yet. Let alone started acid-washing the sample bottles, since the bottles are still in the warehouse from where I have to buy them. Efforts are under way, though, to vacuum out the other sample bottles, so I haven't been completely idle. If, that is, sending an email and then browsing online scientific supplies stores counts as not being completely idle.
A major event happened in my home the other day. Shan, my lovely cohabitator, bought a guitar, just like he has wanted to do for years. It's a beautiful guitar. I have to say that our home has become significantly more cultural since the advent of the instrument and I'm enjoying every evening serenade I get.
Well, I'll save you more gibberish until next time. Lifið heil!
mánudagur, janúar 02, 2006
Happy New Year!
What a fabulously fantastic vacation! Shan and I took off after Christmas and returned, tired and happy and sore-legged (at least me), on New Years Eve. Mad River Glen, Burlington, Lake Champlain, Montreal, Mont Tremblant. Fantastique.
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