Late summer afternoon at Cornell

Saturday at the farmers' market

Coming up next in Herdis's life:

Internship with Shell Oil in Houston!!

Yes, for those of you who did not fall of your chairs when reading this (or who have already managed to crawl up into your seats again): I, the tree hugger, the environmentalist, the general protester, I am going to work for Shell.

What happened? Well, I got an offer for a really nice internship (as in, really interesting science, or so it sounds) and after thinking about it for about... 1 minute... I decided to do it. The internship being quite well paid didn't hurt either, but was not the deciding factor. I simply figured it would be great to learn something new, get a glimpse of life as a professional, get to know a multinational company from the inside, meet new people and live in a different city. Can't hurt, can it?

I'm starting work on October 1st and will work for them until Christmas, more or less. I found a really nice place to live, with a really nice housemate, today. I'll have a car for the time that I'm there and maybe I'll get a chance to travel around a bit on the weekends.

After Houston, it's the Philippines again, with a possible stop-over in Hawaii. As I've said before, never a dull moment :)

But first things first. Erna, the recently published author of this article in the PNAS, is coming into Ithaca as we speak. She'll stay with us until Sunday. She's never seen Ithaca in the summer (well, late summer) before and I can't wait to show her around... and have some Ópalsnafs with her :)

Europe, part 4

I also had a few glasses of white with my bosom buddies Hallveig and Stína. Aren't they gorgeous??

Europe, part 3

A nostalgic visit to the library of my old high school and a connection between Íþaka and Ithaca:

Europe, part 2

Stína and her sushi boat:



and Erna's living room after a day or two of visiting Icelanders (and their shopping bags):

Europe, part 1

Yes, I do owe you all some juicy bits from Europe. Actually, Stína has done a fantastic job on her blog telling about the Austria part. *sigh*, I miss the Vienna days and my fantastic friends there...

Let's take a look at the Schloss Schönbrunn. Stína and I went for the imperial tour of the premises while Erna Ýr and Íris went shoe shopping. Not that I would have minded shoe shopping at all...

The front of the castle:



and the back of the castle:



The Habsburgers didn't exactly rough it, did they?

Early dinner in Frankfurt

The original,

at the Sacher Cafe, Vienna.

Cologne cathedral

More soon

An idle day in Cologne

Instead of seeing Laacher See on a geological excursion today, I went to see an exhibition about Christian Dior and Germany at the Museum für Angewandte Kunst. It was excellent. I want that rust-red evening dress that Marlene Dietrich once had!

Irr...rrrr....rrrr....itated

Please remember that I prolonged my stay in Europe by a week due to the American embassy in Reykjavik not having any available interview slots during the week I originally planned to be in Iceland. Now, it is not an altogether horrible thing to spend an extra week in Europe. It does have its undeniable benefits. It is, however, also entirely perceivable that this would not be the case.

You can therefore imagine my surprise when I booked my interview today. They had lots... let me repeat this... LOTS... of openings during the week that I will spend in Europe, waiting for an available interview slot at the embassy.

Now, please join me in sincere irritation. And trust me, I plan to yell at a certain receptionist when I get the chance.

Conference - day II

Well, guess what. I already gave my talk!

It wasn't nearly as hard as I thought it would be. Everybody in the room heard me. I stayed within time limits. My throat was dry towards the end, but that's manageable. At the end there was time for only one question from the audience, and the question I got was one that I had actually researched and found a pretty cool answer to. An altogether encouraging experience.

Talk talk talk - undubbed

I am in Köln. Or Cologne, as my boyfriend's compatriots like to call it.

Ich bin in Köln. Dass heisst, Cologne, wie es die Landesgenossen meines Freundes nennen möchten.

See! I can still speak German (or something akin to German). Hah!

For your edification, I am inserting a slide from my upcoming talk at the awesome schmawsome conference:



Now don't complain that you have no idea what I'm trying to tell you - just go and find out!

I forgot that all TV is dubbed in Germany. There is something decidedly odd about watching Buffy the vampire slayer in German.

Wondering why I'm watching TV? Well, I'm practicing my talk in the hotel room, and assuming my neighbors aren't interested in hearing the talk ten times, I'm trying to drown out my voice with the TV. Which is why I'm listening to the King of Queens having a fight with his wife in German right now. Sigh.

Crappy

These last three days haven't been good. At all. Wednesday the headache started and since I didn't knock it out right away with some ibuprofen it grew to astronomical proportions, rendering me totally incapable of working until now. In fact, I almost didn't sleep at all for the last two nights. This morning I called up the doctor and was sent home with a bag full of prescription painkillers. Those fortunately allowed me to sleep for 6 hours straight, but now my back hurts instead of the head. And my stomach is a total mess, not having seen a regular meal in three days. The joy. And all this just as I was supposed to be composing my talk for the Goldschmidt conference. Yikes.

The dates

Arriving on the 3rd of September, leaving on the 10th. Homeless in Central Europe for the preceding week.

Something's in the air

Ah, bless the 'Mercan Embassy in Reykjavik. They are apparently so swamped with visa applications these days that one has to wait over a month to get an interview. And nowhere does it say so on their website. (And even if it did, I would still have a problem since it didn't become clear that I would have to change visas until last week). Therefore, after a conversation with a seemingly rather overworked but ultimately very friendly receptionist at the embassy, the verdict is that I have to push back my visit to Iceland by a week or so. That is of course monetarily not very convenient, but the pecuniary inconvenience is probably more than made up for by the fact that luvely people I know who won't be around in late August, such as my friend Stina, will be in town, and I'll be around to give my dad a happy b-day hug. Nicht schlecht.

Which reminds me. The conference is looming large on the horizon. Better get some work done!

Breeze

This morning there was the slightest breeze as I walked to school. A most welcome change from the stifling heat and humidity that has been enveloping us these past weeks.

Moi, The Dreamer

A new blog

No more knitting stuff here on this site. Nay, for that I created an all-new knit blog, knitting hurricanes.

Þór

Thunderbolt and lightning-very very frightening me-

... well, I actually LOVE thunderbolts and lightning - which is why I'm happy as pie now :)

Progress

Still knitting the baby cardigan. The progress over a week is recorded in these two pix; old on the left, new on the right.

Here's what the whole thing looks like right now. Cute, innit?

What IS that??!?

Poor scheduling

I can't believe this: Stína won't be in Iceland when I visit. Out of all the 5-day slots in a year, what are the chances that both of us would plan to be away from our homes at EXACTLY the same time?? Anyone??

It's unfair. Hrmpf!!

How could I be so...

...STUPID???

The Grad School at Cornell supports students presenting their work at conferences with up to 650 dollars once a year. I banked on this support for the Cologne conference. Today I sat down to fill out the application and almost got a heart attack.

See, I thought that the deadline was the first of the month of the conference. Turns out it is the first of the month BEFORE the conference. Here I am with my application, a month after the deadline.

Moron!


Update 07/31/07: The lady at the Grad School said I could submit my excessively belated application and so I did. Instantly. Now I'm waiting to see what comes out of it.
Update 08/01/07: They saw aumur á mér and gave me the grant. Nice.

On me way

Ok, I will go to Iceland this summer after all. When it became clear that the trip to the Philippines would stretch into September, it became a necessity to renew a certain somebody's visa. The itinerary is:

Syracuse, NY - JFK
JFK - KEF
KEF - Frankfurt

and back the same way, with 6 days in Iceland. They better keep the embassy open while I'm there!!

Then as I'm back in Ithaca, it'll be no more than 48 hours before I'm on a plain again headed for the Philippines. Two weeks of work there (and maybe a short splash in the ocean) and back home, only long enough to stuff my new samples into the fridge and get ready for my in absentia plans (let's hope the grad school approves of them... spennó spennó)! Never a dull moment, as the man said.

Compliment

It doesn't take a lot to make a little heart happy:

Yesterday I parallel parked my car into a really tight spot. A car that was driving behind me waited until I was in the spot, then drove on and parked nearby. As I walked past, the driver, who was putting some coins in the parking meter, stopped me and commented on what a great job I'd done getting the car in there.

Needless to say, I was walking on air for the rest of the day :)

It's a tie!!

Which Harry Potter Character Are You?
	You are part Fred and George. You're a joker at heart, but when push comes to shove, you know what's important.
	You are part Dumbledore. You're the wise sage in any group. With your guidance, any situation can be resolved in the fairest way possible.
Find Your Character @ BrainFall.com

My foot and a baby cardigan-to-be

Here are a couple of pix of the baby cardigan I'm working on. They're taken with my phone camera on the walkway around my house (remember, the walkway whose bricks are slowly being "harvested" by some unidentified tenants... I wonder if they think there is such a thing as brick growing season... *muhahahahahahhaaha*):

A close-up of the cardigan shows the texture, a moss stitch for the bottom and a ribbed stitch for the body:

It's knitting up faster than I thought it would (with 2.25 mm needles, which is just insanely small!!) so I might make a cap and booties to match. Yum!

P.S. I finished Harry Potter!

Buttons

Since I'm at it: How do I turn nice little buttons, like this one:


into a link in my sidebar? All suggestions welcome!

You won't believe it...

... but I finally put some links and stuff in the sidebar!!!!!

Tales from the back yard, cont.

I haven't updated you on the situation in the backyard recently.

So, no more dead pets since last time. Only one cigarette butt or two. No candle wax either. Nice enough. Problems over?

Not quite. Now bricks are disappearing. Not just the ones forming a division in the flower beds and which I excavated from under years of neglect earlier this summer, but also the ones forming the walkway into the house. Yes, you are right - the "sidewalk" around the house is disappearing. The maintenance staff seems to think that some of the (former) tenants are harvesting the bricks for... something...

Any idea from my loyal readers as to what might be ailing those poor morons' souls??

Spreeeeeeee

Sometimes when I go to amazon.com, I cannot contain myself.

Today I have placed three separate orders there. Yes, I know, I'm insane.

The first two are for work stuff. An Atlas of Hawaii, of which I have already purchased a copy, which disappeared. There used to be at least 2 if not 3 copies available in my lab; now all are gone. I'm going to put a trace on this thing when it gets here. You know, like they put on underage wizards.

I don't think people will be as keen to "borrow" the other work-related book I ordered: Core Python Programming. I need to learn some real programming if I want to skip over insanity on my way to a Ph.D. There's just no way around it.

And then the yummi stuff: Knitted Fits... smuff, no, it's Fitted Knits... hard to get that one straight. This book's knit-along (you're entirely forgiven for not having a clue here) is a great ad for the book, I wasn't really interested in it until I saw what knitters out there are doing with/for the designs. And, for good measure, I threw in a book about the history of Islam...

Potter

Of course I was part of this record. I haven't finished the book yet (had to read the Half-Blood Prince first!) but so far it's not letting me down.

Hair

I just called my hairdresser:
"Hi, this is Herdis"
"Oh hi, how are you? You need a hair appointment?"
"Yes, in fact I do"
"Great! So, what's a good day for you?"
"I was thinking sometime next week"
"Ok, so tomorrow at 9:30 am?"
"erm... yeah, I guess..."

Interview

For the first time in my humble life, today I interviewed someone who's looking for a job. The search is on for a replacement for the graduate/undergraduate coordinator job in my department and I represent the grad students on the selection committee (see, our insistence on being taken seriously by the faculty seems to be paying off). It was an interesting experience, not to mention what a relief it was to be at my side of the table :)

Las Islas Filipinas - again?

My adviser popped into the lab today to tell me that we are 99% sure to get the grant to go to the Philippines this summer. Erm... I know what you are thinking... isn't the summer half over? Well, yes.

So, getting a grant is always excellent, and sometimes even sprexellent, as in this particular case. It's not a lot of money, but enough for what it's intended for, and coming out of a pool that sees stiff competition, I think we can be pretty pleased with ourselves. The only problem is that... well, now that the summer is almost over and The Conference looming ahead, there's just no TIME to go! But we'll figure something out. I'll keep you posted.

Hard drive woes over

Yes, you read that title right: My worries about backing up my hard drive have been firmly put to rest. My brand-spanking new Western Digital 60GB external hard drive arrived today and now all my invaluable junk has been backed up on it. Nice!

Other than that, life's pretty much the same. I had a bizarre dream last night, that I was chasing a bus around a rugged countryside... similar to Iceland... and the driver was a total psycho, toppling the bus over into gullies and driving it up insanely steep mountainsides... and I was trying to save the passengers, all bloody and injured, from the wreck before it fell off into the abyss.

I had cold mango soup with coconut and mint for lunch. Delicious, but left me just as hungry as I was before eating it.

Aimless

I just don't know what to work on. It's all in a big tangle in my head.

The Goldschmidt conference in Germany is coming up in a month's time. I have to have at least 12 minutes of at least decent science ready by then to present. I can't even put some blurb on a poster and make myself disappear, no, I'm giving a talk. So, it better be good. And here I am, sitting at my desk for nearly 4 hours straight, and all I accomplished was to open a couple of Excel files. I seriously need more structure in this endeavour of mine. Or motivation. Or both.

The funny thing is, I think that what I do is really interesting. As far as I can analyze things myself, my lack of progress is mainly caused by two factors: 1) It feels like my project is so gargantuan that I will never be able to finish it in the allotted time, and not being able to finish it, what's the point in even starting... and 2) I hate working alone. I am alone at my desk all day, my thesis adviser is never here (and even if he were, it wouldn't change a whole lot since we hardly ever talk about science anyway... at least not on a peer level) and I don't get a chance to interact with other scientists in my field on a regular basis.

The good news: I had a meeting with my stats adviser this morning and it was excellent. He gave me lots of good research-related advice and was really interested in hearing and discussing my future plans. Very encouraging.

Sins

Stína tagged me, and so I have to tell you about 8 sins I have committed. Is it a problem that I don't believe in the concept? Oh, whatever, here are the most gruesome things I've ever done:

1. When I was 11, I kicked my cousin in the balls because he preferred playing with my brother.
2. I've been known to put stones into my hiking partners' backpacks, just for fun.
3. I cheated on an exam once... no wait, twice!
4. I am a sloth by nature
5. I read too many non-work related books
6. My fascination for exaggeration sometimes carries me away, leading people to believe that yes, I did climb a HUNDRED MILLION stairs or that it was really a THOUSAND degrees out.
7. I'm not as driven as most academic advisers think you should be.
8. And lastly, the ultimate sin: I don't believe in a personal God.

See, you probably never guessed I was THAT evil ;)

Ka-rasj!!

My external hard drive has been giving me some headache recently, since it won't imbibe more than ~10GB of data (although it is a 60GB drive). This started happening after I reformatted the drive and changed it from 2 partitions to one. My computer tells me that the drive is healthy and well, but obviously my computer doesn't know the first thing about hard drives.

Usually what happens is that when 10GBs have been copied to the hard drive, the back-up software freezes. If I then try to close it or terminate the process, the computer freezes. If I then unplug the external drive, the computer freezes. If I then go and paint my toenails pink, my computer freezes.

I talked to a tech at the manufacturer's who suggested it might be the USB cable. I suggested in return he/she was a moron. No, of course I didn't do that but it is a moronic suggestion. I'm sure you agree. Why would a USB cable refuse to transfer more than 10GB in a setting? Please let me know if you figure that out.

However, having nothing better to do (such as working on my Ph.D.) I did try to use another cable. Lo and behold, this one managed to ferry 5GB over before all hell broke loose. Not only did my computer crash spectacularly; when I restarted the poor wounded thing all my Firefox/Thunderbird profiles and accounts had been WIPED OUT. Is this the great IOGEAR anti-Mozilla crusade??

A few S**T and F**Ks later, I found that all the data is still on my hard drive or (God (a convenient time to assume such a being exists) thank them!!) on the Firefox servers. I had to reconnect my browser to the Foxmark server and I have to somehow retrieve my Thunderbird account and get all the mail to show up again.

All this, and I still haven't gotten my hard drive backed up. ARG!

What a pain. If it weren't for my fabulous optimism in the face of adversity and stunningly positive personality (ehem...) I would probably be crying by now.

I hope they don't have a dog!!

Can you find the dead goldfish in the picture??

Update: Honorable mention will go to the one who can find the second dead goldfish too!

The neighbors

Guess what I found in the flower bed outside my apartment as I came home from the (soaking) 4th of July BBQ. A dead goldfish!!!

I don't want to throw stones, but it some of my neighbors - I don't know yet who - are not very pleasant. I've found some pretty nasty stuff in the flowerbeds - cigarette butts, candle wax, broken glass, more cigarette butts, and now, the latest charming addition. I have a feeling it's the kids above us, who spend a lot of time by the window overlooking the backyard (and out on the roof) smoking and, apparently, throwing their dead pets out and not knowing how to dispose of burnt-down candles. I'd really like to take this stuff back to its rightful owner and tell him/her to shove it where to sun don't shine, but not knowing for sure who the culprit is makes that rather undoable.

Also, last Monday when I took our recycling bin out to the curb for pickup I noticed that there were four sixpacks of beer and vodka-drink bottles in our recycling bin that neither I nor Shan had put there. We keep the bin on our porch and I suspect that one of our neighbors just put their recycling in our bin. Common guys! I took the sixpacks out and put them on the common porch for the other apartments in the house and there they are still. I might have to remove their dead pets from my flowerbed but I am NOT taking the remains of their parties to the curb for them. ASSHOLES!

So, what do the Danes do then? At the time when Shan first moved in here he was promised that only grad students (read: grown ups) would live here. That held true for the first year or so but by now we feel that we are orders of magnitude older than most of the people living in the house. I don't have anything against young people (being so fabulously young myself... ehem...) but I don't want to live in the same house as they, at least not in Ithaca. We are pretty pissed off that the landlord has defaulted on his promise so severly.

Moi

Warm asphalt

In Gateway, Colorado it was so hot (122F, i.e. 50°C) that even the asphalt was soft.

Snapping Turtle Skirt

Wanna see my new skirt? I made it all by myself! The pattern hails from the book Knitting Nature, which has become my bosom buddy and the place to go to for all things knitty. The skirt took me a couple months to knit and while I was at it it looked so bad I honestly thought that I would chuck it straight into the garbage can when it was ready. Alas, that did not happen; the skirt came out much better than I ever dared to hope. It's pure wool so I won't be using it a lot over the summer but you can bet that I'll wear it to threads once the weather gets a little cooler. That's when I'll start knitting some more stuff from the book too.

Currently knitting: Just starting a cardigan for a newborn... actually an unborn nephew/niece* of Shan's.

-----

* Shan's best friend since pre-kinder is pregnant. Well, his girlfriend/wife is.

The Jesus people...

... knocked on my door just a minute ago, inviting me to a Jehova's Witnesses' event. I politely declined the offer. Maybe I should I have ushered them inside, offered them a cup of tea and a reading from "The God Delusion" or "The End of Faith". I wonder how they would have liked that.

Finished The Road a couple of days ago. Shan't say much about it, just this: Read it.

Grass widow

Shan took off this morning to a wedding of his friend in California. He'll be gone for almost a whole week, during which I'll have the house all to myself. I can strew my books all over the floor, keep my knitting projects all over the couch (not on the floor, mind you) and fart and burp as much as I please, thus returning to the times before vigilant consideration entered my life. I wonder how that will feel.

After a few weeks in the field in 1999 with my geology co-student Jakob I was so thouroughly rid of any civilized streak I'd burp mid-sentence and hardly notice. Let's hope these days of solitude won't have that effect this time. Then again, I think Jakob may have contributed to the un-civilizing, seeing as he thought nothing funnier than farting big time once he was safe in his sleeping bag, then unzipping the bag and fanning the gases over my face. Trust me, field geologists are bizarre creatures.

They're having a party next door and shouting like some prairie Indians going to battle. Cornell undergrads are bizarre creatures too.

Books

It's been too warm lately for knitting (for some reason I only knit wool) so I've returned to my old habit of devouring books. Here's what I can recall reading recently:

Snow, by Orhan Pamuk. I actually read this in the Philippines in January and enjoyed it immensely. Probably one of the best novels one will ever read. Very complex and dark and beautiful.

Running with Scissors, by Augusten Burroughs, is awful. An astoundingly overrated book.

The God Delusion, by Richard Dawkins. Equally hilarious and frightening. I didn't need convincing that mixing religion and politics is a very bad idea and I loved Dawkins' unapologetic writing style. I especially loved the last chapter which aims to show us why a personal God is unnecessary to experience consolation and fulfillment in life.

The End of Faith, by Sam Harris. Finished this one last night. It addresses similar concerns as The God Delusion but from a philosophical perspective. The sarcasm is more heavily reined in here than in The God Delusion but no apologies are made either. Recommended, although the chapter on torture left me a little cold.

Thinking in Pictures. Stína will know all about this one. By Temple Grandin, an autistic woman who has managed to overcome substantial obstacles to participate in the world more than most autistic people. The book is very interesting but frequently goes off topic too much for my liking.

The Feminine Mystique, Betty Friedan. Wow. This one blew me away. Granted, it was written in the 60's and some parts are hopelessy dated, such as the part suggesting autism is caused by "refrigerator" mothers. But the insight into the nature of the "problem with no name" is crystal clear, and the analysis of the root of the problem lucid and frightening. It just doesn't cease to amaze me what women of the past, such as Friedan, have accomplished in fighting for the rights of women. We owe those ladies a lot.

The Memory Keeper's Daughter, by Kim Edwards. This one ended up being the chosen one, which I brought with me on the Colorado-Utah bike adventure to while away the hours spent in the huts resting my tired limbs. Good choice, I have to say (except that I was done with it in 4 days even as I restrained my access to the book! Should have brought a longer novel...). The event which shapes the story is about as unconventional as you can find in a novel and the author tackles it pretty well, portraying all the characters with fairness and creating an intensely readable book from a storyline that at first sight doesn't seem to invite much excitement.

Hinir sterku, Kristján Þórður Hrafnsson. An Icelandic novel. Somehow the style of the author first seemed odd to me, like he was too used to writing poems to not be hopelessly formal in prose. Either I got used to it or it changed, because after a while this didn't bother me anymore. Interesting story and morals, characters maybe a bit too shallow.

Sendiherrann, by Bragi Ólafsson. Another Icelandic novel. I liked the one previous novel from the author that I've read, and I really liked this one as well. However, I'm not sure really where the author is going or what he's trying to tell. I just know that it's a tragic and comic and well written story. It'd be nice to have read this one in Óli Odds' Icelandic class in MR...

Waiting to be read:

My name is Red, Orhan Pamuk
Ines of my Soul/Ines del alma mia, Isabel Allende
Satanic Verses, Salman Rushdie
A Sand County Almanac, Aldo Leopold
The Road, Cormac McCarthy Update 07/01/07: finished
Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy 1917-1963, Robert Dallek
American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer, Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin
The Inheritance of Loss, Kiran Desai
and about a million others...

Last Dollar Pass and then some more

The end of the first day was hard. Shan lugging his bike up to the hut at 10,950 ft elevation (that's over 3000 m a.s.l. for the metric gang). No wonder Butch Cassidy rode a horse over that pass as he fled town after his first bank robbery, he'd never have made it over on a bike!

Telluride, the quaintest little town in the West

Short stop at Snowbird, UT

Shan wants to ski this chute

Salt Lake City: where it all began

The temple:

Hot ride

The warmest day:

The bike and Telluride mountains

Awesome Snowbird, UT

Blogopause

I'm having a blogopause these days. It happens to bloggers that have been at it for veeerrrryyyy long. Thus the random pictures.

In the wake of whining and howling about lost pay and paycuts and whatnot I have decided to go on a spiffy sumer vacation!!! What else is there to do (other than, perhaps, NOT go on a summer vacation)? It begins tomorrow with a flight to Salt Lake City. My luvly cohabitator (Dork#2 below... or was it #1??) and I are going to bike from Telluride, CO to Moab, UT over the course of 7 days. If we don't a) perish from exhaustion or heatstroke, b) get eaten by a mountain lion, c) get lost or d) decide to leave it all behind and become Abbey-ists out west, we should be back in about 10 days.

Before I forget. Last night while having dinner I saw a young woman breastfeeding her baby on the next table. Nothing unusual about that, except she was wearing a giant blanket hooked around her neck, so that the baby was completely covered. In my limited perception of things, a society that labels breastfeeding too morally upsetting to be carried out in the open is seriously screwed up. Not that I hadn't realized that before, but I always find it equally disturbing.

Cornell in a good mood

Multimedia message

The beach

Lake Taal

"Showing 2 out of 592 references"

I just finished (as in, 5 minutes ago) cataloging my substantial collection of scholarly articles. Now they are all neatly tucked away in folders, one for each author, in the filing cabinet. Endnote and the office supply cabinet have come in very handy here, providing me with a framework for organizing this mountain of paper both in real space and cyberspace.

The title of this post refers to the number of papers returned when searching my database for "author=Schopka". I've obviously got some ways to go!

The elusive paycheck

I'm looking for volunteers to

a) quite unannounced not get any paycheck on next payday
b) take an unannounced 35% paycut, effective immediately

Any interested parties can switch identities with me for the summer and live happily. Or so my department thinks.

Shunned

Sometimes I find it hard to believe I am still here. Sometimes I get angry at myself for not ditching people who ditch me. I have to fight myself to not become the mother of all bitches, bitter and enraged.

But this is what I wanted. Better grit my teeth and get it over with.

Kuldaboli

It was cold in Ithaca last night!! In fact, it was so cold that I lay shivering under the duvet (yes, a real duvet) and couldn't for the life of me fall asleep, lest I be asphyxated in the little cocoon I had wrapped myself in. Therefore I got up in the middle of the night and put on my ski sweater, fleece pants, woolen socks and elf hat. So dressed I crawled into bed again and viti menn, I fell instantly asleep.

Such are the small wonders in the life of a grad student.

Oh, and then there's the back yard. I'll tell you about it shortly.

Stress out the window

After the stress-overload of the last few weeks I finally feel like a human again.

Remarkable times

I find it quite remerkable that the Progressive Party (again, what a misnomer) is contemplating continuing the coalition with the Independence Party. Isn't it time to face the facts and retreat?

Important day

Yes, we made it, us skötuhjú:

Shan took his A exam today and passed (needless to say). His friends (and I... ehemm) took him out for lunch and a BBQ is planned for tonight. Congratulations!!

As for moi, I took my last final EVER today. Environmental engineering minor - done!

And I did it again:

What Classic Movie Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

Quite the schizo, me.

And since I am at it:

What Classic Movie Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

Tragic, innit?

Friday forty-two

This is all Ali's fault. I should be working (and so should she).

1. What is your occupation? Dishwasher-in-training, i.e. grad student in geochemistry
2. What color are your socks right now? Socks?? Are you out of your mind?
3. What are you listening to right now? The buzzing of my office mates' brain cells.
4. What was the last thing that you ate? Multi-grain Cheerios
5. Can you drive a stick shift? I can't drive anything else
6. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? erm... white?
7. Last person who you spoke to on the phone? Shan. He's the only person I talk to on the phone.
8. Do you like the person who sent this to you? erm... of course, you silly!
9. How old are you today? erm... 29? *chuckle chuckle*
10. Favorite drink? Icelandic water (I'm very much a nationalist when it comes to water...).
11. What is your favorite sport to watch? Tour de France, and Cornell hockey.
12. Have you ever dyed your hair? erm... are you serious?!!?!
13. Pet's Name(s): Shan
14. Favorite food? Southwestern salad with chicken from freshtake... if it's the only thing you got you might as well like it.
15. What was the last movie you watched? Spiderman 3. It mildly sucked.
16. Favorite day of the year? December 23rd, but only when I'm in Iceland
17. What do you do to vent anger? Rant, rant and rant some more.
18. What was your favorite toy as a child? A yellow doll called Disa and an orange teddybear in a dark-blue suit. He ended up in a glass of chocolate milk because I wanted him to be brown.
19. What is your favorite season? Spring in Svalbard and summer in Iceland
20. Hugs or kisses? Can I have both, please?
21. Cherries or Blueberry? Blueberry
22. Do you want friends to do this quiz? What friends?
23. Who is most likely to respond? See #22
24. Who is least likely to respond? See #22
25. Living arrangements? In sin
26. When was the last time you cried? Probably when I watched some soppy TV show on DVD... you can count on me for that sort of things
27. What is on the floor of your closet? Good question.
28. Friend you have had the longest that this is being sent to?
29. What did you do last night? Had dinner with my boyfriend and his friends (see #22), graded some papers, watched Lost...
30. Favorite smells? Clothes that are dried outside in the wind and sun
31. What inspires you? Open skies and open vistas
32. What are you afraid of? Becoming food
33. Plain, cheese or spicy hamburgers? Chicken nuggets?
34. Favorite dog breed? Charlotte's dog, Big.
35. How many years at your current job? Are graduate studies a job?? Anyway, I've been here 4 years... omg
36. Favorite day of the week? Saturday
37. How many states have you lived in? 1, and 5 countries
38. Favorite holiday? Christmas (as long as the family behaves)
39. Ever driven a Motorcycle or heavy machinery? Snowmobile, is that heavy machinery? whether it is or not, it certainly is fun!
40. Who's your favorite NFL team? NFL... what's that ;)
41. Do you have a house phone that is NOT cordless? A house phone?? That is so passe.
42. 10 inches of snow or 100 degree weather? Both, as in 100 inches of snow. Please.

Knowing my friends (see #22), they will have either answered all these already or kill me if I tag them. Let's therefore call it a day with pop quizzes, shall we?

Done, done and done!

The grading is over. Phew.

Grading...

... sucks. Ever read 100 assignments on the same boring topic, written by variably verbally skilled/eloquent students? OMG, GET ME OUT OF HERE!!! NOW!!!

Björk-time

Finally Volta is available here in the US. I had it on pre-order on iTunes and now it's on my hard drive, waiting to be enjoyed.

As always when Bjork releases a new album, I'm not going to listen to it until I have some peace and quiet. It'll be me, my iPod, my headphones and Volta. Looking very much forward to it.

Happiness...

... is lauging over assignments to be graded:

"... it would seem that even the natives knew of Honolulu's temperate weather conditions."

Currently making my day:

Uppljóstrun dagsins

Fylgdi fordæmi tölvuóða tónskáldsins og tók prófið:

Stuðningur við Sjálfstæðisflokk: 12.5%
Stuðningur við Framsóknarflokk: 20%
Stuðningur við Samfylkinguna: 37.5%
Stuðningur við Vinstri-Græna: 50%
Stuðningur við Frjálslynda flokkinn: 38%
Stuðningur við Íslandshreyfinguna: 60%

Skoðanir þínar eru í mestu samræmi við skoðanir Íslandshreyfingarinnar!

Þessar niðurstöður koma lítt á óvart... nema þá kannski stuðningurinn við Framsókn... á dauða mínum átti ég von.

Gaman líka að því að ég fæ nánast sömu niðurstöður og tónskáldið. Það er bara vel við hæfi þar sem það var jú á æskuheimili hennar sem ég fór fyrst að spá í stjórnmál... þá sirka 5 ára.

Pirr pirr pirr pirr!!!

PIRR!!!
PIRR!!!!
PIRR!!!
PIRR!!!!
PIRR!!!
PIRR!!!!
PIRR!!!
PIRR!!!!
PIRR!!!
PIRR!!!!
PIRR!!!
PIRR!!!!
PIRR!!!
PIRR!!!!
PIRR!!!
PIRR!!!!
PIRR!!!
PIRR!!!!
PIRR!!!
PIRR!!!!
PIRR!!!
PIRR!!!!
PIRR!!!
PIRR!!!!
PIRR!!!
PIRR!!!!
PIRR!!!
PIRR!!!!
PIRR!!!
PIRR!!!!
PIRR!!!
PIRR!!!!

Reykjavik - the last dayz

Al: Is the volcanism in Iceland Mid-Ocean-Ridge volcanism or Hot Spot volcanism, Georg?
Georg: Are you sitting down, Al? It's BOTH!!

(Al Pacino, as himself, president of Iceland
Georg, a really bad guy)

So, the students in the class that I'm TAing this semester had an option to do a little presentation for the class on a disaster-related topic for extra credit. The presentations were given today. One group had created a movie proposal, where the evil president of Iceland, Al Pacino, sets out to destroy Reykjavik by a volcanic explosion on Heimaey. They acted out various scenes and my favorite is the one above. The facts may be all messed up but these guys were so funny, I was almost in tears by the end of their presentation.

Smart

Today I attended the last lecture in the last class I am taking for my minor in environmental engineering. Then I get back to my desk and read in the news that they're going to use wastewater from beer production to produce electricity. Excellent timing. At no other point in my existence would this news item have meant anything to me, but now it does. Gaman að því.

This class has been pretty hard, probably because I missed the first few weeks b/c of my field work in the Philippines. And sometimes I'm just not so sure why I'd want to learn about biologically treating dissolved poop. But hey, it's not as bad as it sounds... and I finally understood the details of some biochemistry stuff that's been eluding me for a long time. Plus, I might one day actually get a job with this education. That's always a bonus.

Oh, and even more importantly: This is probably the last class I will take EVER (at least at Cornell...)!!! Here's cheers to that!

Soooo annoying

I hate this: Every day I come in with the best of intentions to get loads of work done. Then I run around chasing my tail, going to classes or to the post office or sending some vital emails or heaven knows what until it's... 1:30pm and the workday is almost over and I, you guessed it, haven't gotten anything done. This drives me nuts. So I start blogging. What's the matter with me??

(Kannski það sé skrifstofufélaginn sem snýtir sér og sýgur horinn upp í nefið til skiptis, milli þess sem hann kvartar hástöfum yfir óréttlæti heimsins og ber lyklaborðið eins og allir stafirnir væru leiðbeinandinn hans...)

Money money money!!!

I got word today that my application for a small grant from the biogeochemistry program here at Cornell had been accepted and that they would give me every dime I asked for. Predictably, that made me VERY happy. Now I can go and buy that flow meter for my Philipino colleagues so they can not only sample my rivers many many times but also measure the discharge in them at the same time. Hurray!!

The (Ithaca evening) sun

Remember this post? Well, yesterday the temps went over 25°C and today, even if it was cooler, the sun shone and brung (I mean, seriously, why not??) out the best side of campus. Things change fast in Ithaca, don't they?

Iceland today

In response to the latest news from Reyðarfjörður and Alcoa's new smelter, I'm broadcasting Iceland's true identity today:

The birthday and the defense

Yesterday wasn't all mourning, though.

My darling sister Lára celebrated her 20th birthday yesterday. Wow, I can't believe that it's been so long since I first met her!! I was 13, after all, when she was born and I guess I functioned in some ways as her mom... which was an incredible experience for someone so small as me and one that I'm glad that I had... although it was probably too much for me at the time. So, my "little" sister isn't that small anymore - and I wish I could have been with her on this very big day. Til hamingju með afmælið, Lára mín!!

Also yesterday, my dear lab mate Julie defended her PhD thesis, no less! She did a fantastic job in her public lecture and then underwent 2 hours of closed examination by her committee members. Later a bunch of us went out for dinner and tonight the celebration will continue. Congrats, Julie!

Latest news from Ithaca

Check this out

Too close to home

A former postdoc with Shan's research group here at Cornell recently accepted a faculty position at Virginia Tech. He teaches a class in Norris Hall on Monday mornings this semester.

It was therefore no wonder that when Shan and his friends heard that the Virginia Tech shootings had taken place in Norris Hall that they got very concerned. They tried to contact their friend and fortunately the email came in: "I'm ok, I'm away from campus and all my students had the morning off". Phew.

This whole incident is so disturbing. I've found myself distracted from work, surfing the news sites, watching one video after another. The one where you hear the shootings made me absolutely physically sick.

Another friend heavily criticized the media for sensationalizing the incident and others like it, claiming that it only serves to fulfill people's voyeurism and give deranged people bad ideas. I tend to agree with him.

The snow II

The glamorous view from my office window.


Brought to you by my fabulous Nokia 6131/6126.

Macy

Don't y'all just LOVE Macy Gray?

The snow

Winter isn't going anywhere here in Ithaca. Town is now draped in heavy, wet and impossibly white snow, at a time of year when people are usually pulling out their shorts and sandals.

The forecast told us already last week that the weekend would see some snow. Last night, it was just raining. Then I had this dream that I was going to school and to get there, I had to wade through dirty slush up to my neck. I decided it wasn't worth it, turned around and went back home to snuggle up with a cup of hot chocolate in bed. Oddly enough the slush didn't make me wet, dirty or cold, but it was still real slush. A guy walking next to me through it was really hell-bent on making it to school and started swimming. I couldn't relate to that. Then, when I woke up, town was shrouded in white and oh so pretty slush.

So, am I dreaming for dagláts? Or am I using the weather as an inspiration for expressing my feelings towards life, death and the universe (read: grad school)?

Not that life, death and the universe are that bad these days. No, in fact I find myself pretty psyched about my work these days. Not to mention the fact that Audrey Raines is ALIVE, just like I predicted. See, I'm outsmarting these 24 people. Yes!

Ok, so things are starting to look better...

or worse. Depending on how you choose to interpret the picture I just posted.

The good part is that I can now finally, finally, FINALLY send pics and e-mails from the über-fancy schmanzy phone I bought in the Philippines.

The bad part: I look like I got kidnapped from a freak show in that photo. Then again, maybe I was. At birth. In which case I'm glad the truth has finally come out.

So, why haven't I been able to send pics and e-mails from the phone? The guy at the Cingular store sure didn't know. He didn't know either that Nokia 6126 is called the 6131 in Southern Asia. Neither did I know that the 6131 is called 6126 here. Armed with this new knowledge I consulted my best friend Google and found everything I needed to know with her. All hail and praise to Google. J'aime Google.

Oh, and btw, that green sweater I'm wearing in the freak show photo... I knitted it last winter.

Scary in the lab

It certainly looks like it!

Finally s-th works on this phone. Yay!

--
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This mobile text message is brought to you by Cingular, now the new AT&T

Test

Now... Does this work?

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The bear and the car

Here, a list of some excellent podcasts. Keep in mind I didn't discover podcasts until about a month ago (yes, I'm always way ahead of the times, me) so I'm still just on the tip of the iceberg when it comes to exploring this stuff...

- http://www.podingtonbear.com/

- Car Talk Call of the Week (on iTunes, you can listen to entire shows at www.cartalk.com)

- Nature Podcast (on iTunes) - great science news although the guy hosting this has to be the most smug (smuggest??) bloke ever

- iTunes New Music Tuesday - I'm always open to ideas on how to spend more money at the iTunes store

- BBC News

- Geo 10, Fall 2006 - World Regions, Peoples and States - this is sooooo fabulous, I can listen to a whole freshman level geography class from UC Berkeley while doing mindless tasks in the lab. The nerd within is happy :)

Ideas for a post

By public demand, I'm back (not that I ever was gone, I just focussed my priorities elsewhere for a while).

And in fact, I plan to focus them elsewhere again. There is this problem set due in a couple of hours and while most of it is done, there is this one problem left. Guess I should work on that.

So, what should the topic of my next post be? Heat wave in Svalbard? Spring break in Florida? Speculations on using a pre-concentration column on the IC to quantify Sr in my Philippine water? My latest knitting project? Moths? My favorite podcasts?

It's all up to you guys. Let me know what you think.

The covenant

So, here it finally is, the Covenant for the Future of the Land

Endilega að skrifa undir. Saman björgum við framtíð Íslands!

Simple as that

I want to move to Hawaii.

The odd job offer

I am one lousy blogger. That's nothing new, however.

Nothing much going on. Work, sleep, work, sleep. Oh, and the snow took off. Yesterday it was 18°C for a while and approximately a foot of snow melted off of the stone garden outside my building. The streams were happy.

About a week and a half ago someone called me and offered me a job. I said I was interested and would contact him again in a week or two, to which he agreed. Since then I have emailed this person twice and left him a phone message, all to no awail. This surprises me. If this person wouldn't want me to work for his company, why would he contact me at all? And if this person for some reason cannot keep his job offer, why not just let me know? I think this is very odd. But then again, I'm not used to having headhunters after me, so who knows, this might be the way they do it.

But I still think it's odd.

Unexpected news:

Looks like there are still decent people in this world. This is great!