Fun at Someone's Expense

For two or three days now, I've been looking for a good laugh at someone else's expense. I don't know why, I guess that there's a little imp in me that has been suffocating under all the love and affection I get at home and it just had to break out. That happens every now and again. It has something to do withundealt with demons from my childhood, I think.
Today, I found just such an outlet. My belly hurts. And who was the supplier of such relief? Was it someone I know personally? No. Was it even a human? No. It was a dog. But this is not just any dog. This is a dog called Triumph who appears from time to time on the Connan O'Brian Show. In this instance, he took on Michael Jackson fans. Now, I'm not involved in the trial or privy to any of the information that the authorities have. I can't say without a doubt that he's guilty and deserves the persecution he has to endure time and again. But what I can say is that anyone who would do that to their face has SERIOUS problems and needs to be treated in an environment that keeps him safe from us and us safe from him! I don't have any trouble believing that any grown man who likes to have young boys sleep in his bed has devious intentions. I would have a slightly harder time believing that he would be molesting the boys if they were his own sons. But, come on, the guy is inviting strangers home to his house. He's sick and should be locked away.
Anyway, surf over to kvikmynd.is and watch the clip entitled "Triumph ræður við Michael Jackson fans". I know Paul will like this even if the rest of you are bleeding heart, "he's innocent and misunderstood" supporters of this whacko.

Íslensku

Í dag fann hetjan okkur (ég) að Bjarni, vinur minn, hefur verið að skrifa blogsíðu. Mér fannst hún skemmtileg og villti kynna hanna fyrir ykkur Íslendiga sem lesa orðin mín. Þú getur auðveldlega hoppað yfir á síðuna hans með því að klikka hérna. Eða, ef þú villt ekki fara frá mér akkúrat á þessi stundu, hægri klíkk og velja "open in new window" eða slíkt.

Fence

The fence is not finished, but it's finished enough that I'm posting pictures anyway. The whole thing will be stained dark brown, but we haven't gotten around to that yet. Dagbjört says that the taller section around the gate in the front is no good. But that's the way I want it, and I'm the fool building this sucker!

Parking space, no fence

No fence

From inside the yard, no fence

From inside the yard, 1

From inside the yard, 2

Slightly different lattice work on the corner stone

As the hill slants down, the sections have to be staggered.

Where the gate will be

Color swatch

Thank You for the Great Mood

Not being one to exhibit his work very often, it really makes me feel wonderful when I get a compliment like the one I got today. Júlía stopped what she was doing to get on the phone just to call me to say that she is extremely happy with the photos I took at her wedding. Let me tell you, that brought my spirits up and left me feeling like a million bucks (as they say). The fact that that was only my second try at taking wedding photos and the first try at being one of the two official wedding photographers combined with the fact that I’ve never been gifted in taking portraits of people made for a stressful day.
I couldn’t go to bed without announcing to my entire audience of 4 that I appreciate the compliment.

The Snail on My Back

I've heard people refer to a drug as a monkey on their back. This is an interesting image, but it doesn't make too much sense to me. I think that in the case of a drug which is killing you and taking all of your time, energy and life something like a 6 foot long mosquito would be more appropriate. I mean, a monkey on one's back would atleast be curious about the world around it. Also, it would constantly be grooming it's bearer and pulling bugs out of his hair. But drugs do nothing of any real benefit for you (unless you want to argue about the impetus for Jimmy Hendrix, the Beatles, orjust about any othe great musician or artist).
In my case, the animal on my back is a snail. That is,it's The Snail of Laziness. For years, I have been trying to get rid of this damned slimy passenger who repeatedly finds ways to slow my production to a crawl. Of course, I sit here like a bump of useless crap on a log and type it into my computer to add to the ever-growing list of useless posts on this pointless web site. But Seriously, though I feel the need to maintain this site and publish my thoughts from time to time, I wonder why I don't have ambition. I could be a much better student if not for the Snail pullng my attention out of the books.
I am pretty satisfied with the way I am, but this Snail is the one thing I have to kick. This summer I did accomplish quite a bit more than I have in previous summers. That gives me hope. Maybe I'm winning the battle.

Your Opinions

On a normal basis I would make all the decisions about this blog site, but in this case, I think I will ask for you opinion first. Should I continue posting photos and comics here or should I just set up a separate all-photo blog? I'm thinking of setting up a separate blog for photos that I take that I think are worthy of display. I got to thinking that maybe those of you who visit my site regularly might prefer to read more and look at fewer photos that take up space and take a while to load in on a slow connection.

Anyway, some strong winds and a day of babysitting hampered my ambitions of fencing off the yard along the border between our yard and the next yard. But the day was fun anyway. Despite a small misunderstanding this morning, I've been in a good mood all day. Guðjón played outside for a while this morning while I was fighting the wind to get a little bit of work done. Dagbjört disappeared with some friends and hasn't been back since.

I've become relatively addicted to another computer game. This is a free internet game called OGame. It's a space exploration game and for anyone with spare minutes here and there all day it can fill gaps that go otherwise to merely surfing the internet idly. One of the fun things about it is that I'm playing with my brother Carl.

Time to eat.

Here's a nice shot from Thailand. That's Svavar, Anna, His Highness, and Ann. It was a great trip and the friendships we made with Ann (and the other Thai students) made it all the better.

Mission Completed

My sister, Melody, and her boyfriend (though he should be her fiancée *ahem*) have just completed a feat that would be a trial for anyone. They hiked 700 miles (1126 Kilometers) of the Pacific Coastal Trail. This is a long trail that spans the west coast of the US and part of Canada (I think). Anyway, I think this is an amazing achievement and I wanted to state for the record that I am proud of them and happy that they made it back to civilization unharmed, happier and a bit lighter.
I admire you guys.

New Blog

I thought it might be fun to start another blog with a different purpose. This is just for fun and you certainly don't have to leave a name but leave comments if you have a good story. You can find the blog here.

As usual

Inga, þú þarft ekki að lesa þetta. Þú ert margoft búin að hlusta á mig kvarta yfir þessu.

Well, as usual, I fell victim to the disorganization of the University of Iceland. I checked last week when does the fall semester start? Well, according to the internet it starts today. According to the people in the school it starts next week. That explains why books for my classes have not been ordered yet. But it gives me time to get myself into an additional class considering that the biology classes I wanted were canceled due to lack of acceptible numbers of students. There is one ecology class that interests me, though so I'll take that or maybe the paleontology class that's being offered by the geology department. Anything but General Chemistry, Human Genetics, Cellular Biology II (which of course, is about human cells), or Methods in Molecular Biology. Silly me, I thought that being allowed to register for fisheries biology would afford me the opportunity to study aquatic life.

The basic problem here is that the majority of the money to be had in biological sciences lies solely in the microscope and chemistry lab. Therefore, anything else falls to the wayside. But what about in this country whose Ministry of Foreign Affairs publishes this on their web site:
"Fish and fish products constitute more than 70% of Iceland's exports of goods and are thus by far the most important industry." Does it not seem reasonable that learning about the ocean-or at least about fish-should be an option at any of the universities? I can go to the University in Akureyri to learn about aquaculture or the business aspect of the fishing industry. Or I can go to Holar to learn aquaculture to get a BS and then continue on in ichthyology, but only as a Masters program. Furthermore, this is one of the countries where whaling is still carried out and yet nowhere in this country is there a course offered at the univeristy level about the animals or about the industry and its effects. Considering that this is an issue of much heated debate, it only seems that such a course should be offered.

I'm a little annoyed right now.

Broken Shell between Beach Stones

Shots from the Marriage of Júlía and Hermann

Famous people showed up: Sigga Beinteinsdóttir

...og Stefán Hilmarsson, some big-name opera singer, and...uh, the other guy.
"Ég er upp í skýjunum, og ég svif..."

Benna and Atli

Hermann's sister

Beautiful

Irma, Júlía, Hermann, og Alexader

The recession

Happy couple

Ný orðin hjón

Blessun á hringanna

Að giftast er æfilangt ævintýri!

Júlía og Pabbi

Júlía, Atli, og presturinn.

Arahóll

The hill near my house, called Arahóll, was lit nicely by the setting sun yesterday. I've decided to spend more time walking around with the camera. You'll see more and more shots of my town, Vogar, if you pay attention to the world's best blog.

Stinkers

Okay, now I'm steaming mad! One of these scum-sucking leeches that wander the internet spamming and being annoying has just posted a long spam message as a comment on my blog. Anyone who does this will be erased. I have the comments open to the public because I like to welcome in people, even people I don't know, to hear their thoughts. I figure that the only way to make new friends is by opening my little internal world to outsiders and give people the chance to let themselves be known. But som jerk like the one who posted that spam is just wasting that opportunity. I don't read further than to see that it's spam. I don't check to see who sent it or anything. I just delete it with a lot of huffing and puffing and ill-wishing.

You'll get nowhere trying to exploit my blog as a billboard.

Crowberries and Photography

Some of you don't know what crowberries are and others know them only as krækiber. Today, I went with my two kids up above the cliffs overlooking my town to pick berries. Crowberries are very juicy, but not very sweet. they are mostly water, skin and seeds. But going out to collect them is a good excuse to get the kids out of the house and give them some time to wander around outside in the beautiful weather we had today. I also talked for a couple of hours with Dagbjört about life stuff-she's 12 and is starting to try to understand adults more.
On the way up to where we found the berries we came across three horses grazing in a field. We, of course, had to stop for some hand-feeding and photo-ops...hence, the white horse seen here. It was a beautiful day full of fun and fresh air.

Predators

Is it wrong of me to enjoy supplying my predatory fish with cute neon tetras as food? I really like the tetras, but I really like the bichir, too. She hasn't been herself since she came home from her vacation at Hlynur's house and I wanted to try to make her happy again. Don't get me wrong, I don't think it's Hlynur's fault. I'm sure that he was very nice to Boberta. But she hasn't been her usual swim-around-the-tank self and she hasn't been eating lately, either. I think predators are just as beautiful as their prey.
Does this conflict with my moral beliefs or my love of life and living things? I say no, it does not. What is happening in my fish tank is a little closer to the way things play out in nature when the predator is stalking and eating the prey. I know that neon tetras and bichirs do not inhabit the same waters and that animals do not act the same way in a small cage as they do in nature. But that really is the way I see it.
I love my fishy and think that she should be able to hunt from time to time.

Some Fotos from Our Trip

Hammond Castle. Gloucester, MA

Chipmunk, White Lake campground, New Hampshire

Egils hard at work

Window in the shed at Holly's grandmother's place

Me at Ma's this summer

No Problem!

It appears that the problem, whatever it was, that I was having in posting was corrected or healed or whatever. I'm too tired to write now, but I'll post more tomorrow.

Another try

Ah, my dear daughter Dagbjört. Isn't she beautiful? This picture is quite a momentous occasion, though you may not realize it at first glance. You see, I took this picture after watching a fifteen minute long frog chase. Here she is holding the first frog she has ever caught. We went to the Audubon Sanctuary in Ipswich or Topsfield or whatever town it's in and we sa lots of leopard frogs hopping here and there. The kids thought it was just great and Dagbjört set off chasing them to try to catch one. She managed to tire this one out enough that she could catch it and was very proud. It was quite a feat, those little buggers are fast!


Here we are standing with my favorite Dr. Seuss character in Universal Studios Isle of Adventure theme park in Florida. We zipped down there for a few days. It was a lot of fun, not only for the kids!

Trouble...

I've been having a lot of trouble getting posts to work here at blogger.com and I can't get an answer from tech support...go figure. Small posts work okay, but anything of length or including photos doesn't work. Anyway, that's why I haven't posted a new entertaining chapter. Please check back soon.

Touch

Okay, here's the deal, I haven't been able to post anything for two days. I don't know why, but that's the naked truth. This post is what I was trying to post a couple of days ago. I'm trying again just out of blind faith that whatever the problem is, it will be fixed today. Enjoy:


Today has been a good day. I got a lot done but also managed some time to play with Guðjón and drink some great coffe at Siggukaffi. But I'm a bit sleepy. Last night I fell asleep a bit earlier than I have been doing lately. But then I suddenly woke up for no apparent reason at around 11. I lay there trying to get myself to ease back into Dreamworld when I began thinking obsessively about the landscaping projects ahead of me after the fence. I really enjoy this type of work. I'm not trained for it or anything but I feel like things work out pretty well for me when I try. Anyway, after a while of doing my best not to move around too much and keep Inga awake I got up and went to see what I could find to distract myself on the internet. As it turns out, I had an e-mail from a high school friend that I haven't seen or heard from (or about) in 15 years. Yes, I graduated from high school in 1990. In the States, people graduate at 18 years of age, not 20 the way it happens here in the icy north. Anyway, getting that messgae made me start thinking of other people who have been absent from my life for some time. So I went onto classmates.com and started looking for contact info for all the kids in my class. It was a real trip down memory lane to read all those names again, even if most of them don't post pictures and I have no idea what they look like now or what they are doing. After looking at Pentucket Regional High School, I checked the class of 1995 at Bridgewater State College. There were a lot of names that I recognized. Some of them, like Bob Larkin, are people who I remember and hung out with a few times but never really got to know. But I found the names of a few people who were really close friends for a semester or more and then completely disappeared from my life, like Lisa Gustin. I think about this process sometimes. This losing touch. It happens to me a lot. I know it happens to everyone, but it still seems strange to me. I mean, you find people and sometimes you connect and sometimes you don't. But there are people who come in at the right moment and you click together like cogs on a pair of gears. Then, life keeps revolving and one of you or both of you change and you don't mesh together all of a sudden and the friendship disappears without so much as an adieu. I've always been fairly free about speaking with people about things that I probably should have kept secret. I'll tell you, after losing touch with so many people I shudder to think where my secrets have gone! I should never run for office. (of course, I would make a terrible politician for many reasons and that is more a reason not to run for office!) Anyway, it's strange that this all came to mind last night and then the very next day, a dude named Bjarni that I worked with a few years ago in a cabinet shop in Garðabær chimed in with a little comment on this very sight. He's a good example of someone with whom I should have worked harder to kindle a friendship with but for some reason, unbeknownst to me, I did not. He's a good guy with a great sense of humor and I bet we could have become close friends. I can tell that my friend Allan is probably going to be one of these people. He came along at a time when I desperately needed someone to speak English with. I ended up talking his ear off and complaining too much and he is already fading out of my life. I guess that we're not all made to be friends. Part of my life experience deals with paying attention to relationships I have with people and trying to understand them. This of course, can lead to overanalyzation and that has put stress on more than one friendship. But that's one of the fun things about having friends. You can sit down and try to figure out why they are special among all the acquaintences you make as you bumble along toward death. Eh, maybe I'm just being a sentimental girlyman. But I'm allowed to dwell in a fantasy land on the pages of this web site!

Family Day

Today is Fjölskydudagur here in lovely Vogar Iceland. (That's Family Day, in case an english speaker accidentally surfed over to the site) That means one thing to my dear wife. It means she has to compete with members of her team against teams from businesses and organizations around the town for some tiny prize or something. Last year she was with the school as usual. But this year, she was on the town employees team. They decided to stop after the first event. I can't blame them. First, they were supposed to hop into this:
That's right, a fish crate full of sea water, ice cubes, milk, eggs...and who knows what else. Once in there, they had to find a spoon at the bottm, then hop out and run through some tires to the next one. When there had found three spoons they had to guzzle a pint of fat free yogurt drink and then run back to the start to tage the next person on the relay team. Gross. But it was also really windy today and cold. Inga survived the first round.



But the next round dulled her spirit of competition. In this round arfter doing the same thing, they had to crawl under a net with fish carcasses hanging in it on a mat of plastic coated with eggs and who knows what before tagging the next person.
It seems to me like new ideas are needed for this competition!

Politics

Þórun had some choice words to say about my dear home country and its government. I think these two images pretty much sum up my opinion of the current regime.

This Evening

Tonight I feel satisfied after a great lasagne meal at Þórun's apartment in Reykjavík. She is one of Inga's oldest friends. Wait, that didn't come out right. She's the friend who's been with Inga the longest, she's not that old. But, to put things in proper perspective, she's older than I am. Anyway, she seems to enjoy cooking food that I certainly enjoy eating. However, the meal made me realize just how old I am.
You see, I have this theory that kids don't like food with strong flavors because their tongue is so sensative because all the taste buds are new, they haven't been burned too often and their body is renewing everything faster. Then, as one approaches the age of 18 or 19 or 20 or so, the body reaches it's optimal state of being and slowly starts dying off. Things are not replaced as quickly, joints begin to ache, and the senses begin to go as well. This last accounts for the diminishing of the taste buds and therefore, the adults' constant search for foods of stronger flavor. It began about 12 years ago when I started liking cheeses other than good old bland American deli cheese. At the ripe old age of about 25 I discovered that I liked walnuts all of a sudden. Shortly there after, I became aware that my hearing had gone to the point that bagpipes started sounding pleasant to my ears, (well, the Scottish ones anyway).
To get to the point, I had to force myself to willingly place hazlenuts into my mouth today-out of sheer politeness and respect for Þórun (and all the work she put into this dinner...and all the videos she would lend us). She made a cake and deviously made me believe that the only recipie she had was for a chocolate cake crawling with hazlenuts. Well, I closed my eyes and since I'm not one to see a woman cry, I took a bite. The scene reminded me of the defeat of the guy who refused again and again to taste the green eggs and ham. To my horror, age has claimed my mouth's aversion to the evil that has always shadowed the term "hazlnut". The cake was maliciously tastey. It was almost like it was making fun of me! I tried not to like it, but resist as I might, triumph was not mine to be had. My pernicious bane, Age, has won yet another skirmish in the campaign of time. I have to admit that if that cake lay before me now, I would eat another piece, distended though my gut is.
I resign my fate...for now.

A Late Night Message

Tonight was a lot of fun. I exploited the late Icelandic sunset by working on the fence until 11:00 PM. I got a good bit of it done and it looks really good. Now the fence extends from the rear left corner of the house up the side of the yard and halfway across the front to the driveway. I'm going to post pictures as soon as I'm done, despite the fact that the only people who read this site can just drive over here and see it with their own two eyes. In fact, I don't know why I write in English. I guess it's just more comfortable to me to express myself in my mother-tongue.
Speaking of language, I wrote an e-mail in Spanish yesterday. It was my first try at Spanish in quite some time. You see I got an e-mail from a guy in Brazil and he asked me to respond in Spanish if I could because he hardly understands English. It got me to thinking that I really should raise the ghosts of Spanish from the inner depths. I wonder how many bad memories will accompany that process, though. One that springs to mind immediately is the only time I was ever sent to the principal for fighting when I jumped up and tried to flatten a kid's nose because he had an extremely sharp pencil and spent twenty minutes of class time poking me in the back of the neck with it. Bastard. Anyway, it might also bring some fond memories. I was, afterall, second highest in the class. The only person with higher grades than mine was Amanda Coburn and she was one of the best students in the school. Hmm, I wonder what she is doing now...
I don't really have anything great to say today. I'm just unwinding after a bit of work this evening. I have a glass of Cockburn's Anno LBV 1998 port wine to help me relax. This is pretty good, but a bit too peppery for my taste. A few days ago, we went for dinner to the neighbors' house and had some really good bacon-wrapped pork loin with sweet potatoes, white potatoes and corn. With it was a bottle of Yellowtail merlot from Austrailia. I'd heard the wines from that winery were good and my expectations were not let down with this bottle. It was powerful enough not to be outdone by the bacon, but it didn't kick in the mouth the way some cabernets do.
Maybe it's time to cuddle up next to the lovely wife and get some shuteye. Big day of fencing tomorrow!