eigum við að reyna aftur?

Ég var að velda fyrir mér hvort að áhugi væri meðal lesanda fyrir partý í Vogana á laugardaginn næstkomandi. Hvað segið þið?

lowly worm

Lowly Worm is a character in a Richard Scary book. He's called Ormur Einfæti in Icelandic. Today I feel a little bit like Lowly Worm. I've entered a number of photos into an on-line photography contest group and not a single one has won all day. Right now I'm looking at losing with a score of 20/0 votes. Hmph...

Some advice

There is an important difference between coming to visit Iceland in winter or summer that most foreigners would have no idea about. That is, when one comes here in the wintertime one should avoid spending lots of time in Reykjavík. In the summer, this city is quite a nice place to be. There's always stuff to do and see and the weather is usually pretty nice (for at least part of the day). But in the winter the studded tires that so many people believe to be absolutely necessary or safe conduction of a vehicle gnaw at the pavement and send tiny particles of road up into the air. These particles join the cloud of brake pad dust (which has a high copper content) and road salt dust that are already forming a low cloud over the city. This smog gets worse and worse as the winter progresses. t's now being discussed more intensely in the Icelandic media because parents are concerned that the children that they send to playschool are not allowed outside during the day some days when the weather is beautiful because the particlate dust is so thick that it will have an adverse effect on the health of the little buggers. I remember going for a walk during my first winter here and being shocked by this.
I grew up in a small Massachusetts town where the air is clean and smog is something that one hears about but only sees elsewhere. I was used to walking a lot there and when I tried to continue that habit, I quickly realized that the combination of a stinging wind and an opaque cloud of road dust makes for a few days of sore eyes and cheeks and an annoying cough. I'm sure that this dust problem is present in other parts of the country to some degree, but it's viciously noticeable here in the capital.
So, if you're planning a trip to Iceland during the winter to avoid expensive air fare or to enjoy a dip in a disgusting dirty pool of hot water and sperm cells (the Blue Lagoon) make sure that you make your hotel reservations in a town outside of Reykjavík (like Ísafjörður or Húsavík).

My problem with a business suit...

I took this from the geniuses at wulffmorgenthaler.com. I hope they don't mind.

sorry, this is depressing

song title: “I Wanna Fuck You”

AKON (f/ Snoop Dogg) LYRICS

[Akon:] Convict...Music...and you know we a front.

[Chorus (Akon):]

I see you winding and grinding up on that pole,

I know you see me lookin' at you and you already know

I wanna fuck you, you already know

I wanna fuck you, you already know

[Snoop Dogg:]

Money in the air as mo feel grab you by your coat tail take you to the motel, hoe sale,

don't tell, won't tell, baby said I don't talk Dogg but she told on me, oh well,

take a picture with me, what the flick gon' do, baby stick to me & ima stick on you,

if you pick me then ima pick on you, d-o-double g and I'm here to put this dick on you,

I'm stuck on pussy and yours is right, wrip riding them poles and them doors is tight

and ima get me a shot for the end of the night 'cause pussy is pussy and baby you're pussy for life.

[Chorus (Akon)]

[Akon:]

Shorty I can see you ain't lonely handful of niggas and they all got cheese,

so you looking at me now what's it gonna be just another tease far as I can see,

trying get you up out this club if it means spendin' a couple dubs,

throwing bout 30 stacks in the back make it rain like that cause I'm far from a scrub,

you know my pedigree, ex-deala use to move phetamines,

girl I spend money like it don't mean nothing and besides I got a thing for you.

[Chorus (Akon)]

[Snoop Dogg:]

Mobbin' through club in low pressing I'm sitting in the back in the smokers section (just smoking),

birds eye, I got a clear view, you cant see me but I can see you (baby I see you),

it's cool we jet the mood is set,

your pussy is wet you rubbing your back and touching your neck,

your body is movin' you humpin' and jumpin' your titties is bouncin' you smilin' and grinin' and looking at me.

[Akon:]

Girl and while you're looking at me I'm ready to hit the caddy right up on the patio move the patty to the caddy,

baby you got a phatty the type I like to marry wanting to just give you everything and that's kinda scary,

cause I'm loving the way you shake your ass, bouncin', got me tippin' my glass,

Normally don't get caught up to fast but I got a thing for you.

These are the lyrics for the latest example of something that shocks me and offends me. I found this song in my 13 year old daughter’s ipod this morning. The shocking thing is not that she wants to listen to it. The shocking thing is that she could get to it. What’s worse, it’s played on the radio. As far as I can tell the only thing that differentiates this from a porn flick is that it is only sound. Pornography is banned for anyone under 21 in most places I’ve ever seen it being sold. Why do we have this double standard about “music”? I couldn’t believe what I was hearing when I listened to it and yet, when I mentioned my distress about the state of our society I got the typical response to my old fashioned way of thinking: “All her friends listen to it, too. Besides, she’s not listening to it for the lyrics”. But of the hundreds of thousands of hip hop songs produced every year how many of them have basically the same rhythm but do not feature such overt disregard for emotional connection and respect for other people?

The experience was not all bad, however, because I saw that although almost all of the other songs she has in there (and there are probably at least 100 of them) are about sex, none have the same kind of pornographic stance on the subject. This reaffirmed my belief that although I disagree with some of the philosophies she has as a teenage girl, she is well based at least in that she doesn’t get involved in a whole butt-load of crazy stuff like many of her peers. She doesn’t smoke, drink or do drugs. She knows she’s not ready for sex. She talks with her mother about just about everything. So, I can’t get angry with her for listening to a song like this. I just tell her to erase it and go about my day…or I try to do so.

The real problem I have, I realize, is that I still have the same black pessimism about the future of Western society that I had as an angry teenager. We’re burying ourselves in garbage at a seemingly increasing rate. We’re choking ourselves with poisonous fumes that then go on to heat the world thereby changing the climate we require to survive. We’re allowing ourselves to slowly be pushed into accepting more and more overt and emotionless sex and violence in our children’s lives. We’re falling down the increasing slope of consumerism. We’re forgetting to demand that people respect each other. We live in fear of others’ opinions of us based on our appearance.

I say we because for the most part I fall into this category, as well. I don’t blame anyone in particular. I blame us as a collective. We don’t stand up and say, enough is enough. We just say, well, at least (insert kid’s name here) is not into (insert undesirable activity here) like that other kid over there. Is that supposed to comfort me as I accept yet another small piece of innocence is ripped out of my child with rusty tongs? Yes, I am very glad that my daughter does not do drugs. I’m glad that we have so far won the battle to keep her innocent in regards to sex. It pleases me greatly that she was raised to think that smoking is disgusting and dangerous. She doesn’t want to drink alcohol. She doesn’t even like coffee. But I wonder why stop there?

Many of us are constantly raising the bar on ourselves, why not on the upbringing of our children? I mean, I finished school with a BA in speech communications. I didn’t feel content with that and decided to go back to school almost 10 years later. I finished a BSc in fisheries biology. Then I raised the bar again and challenged myself to continue. I want to do the same with my kids. I’m glad that we have made good progress with them so far, but I don’t want to stop just because they are not among the worst kids in town. I want to push them and challenge them to stand up for decent moral values even if it isn’t cool. I would absolutely love to hear my teenage daughter say to her friend that she doesn’t want to wear a thong because she thinks that’s too grown up for a 13 year old. But I would love even more to have her asking why thongs are made in her size in the first place. I would like for her to hear a song like that above and think, “this is not the sort of feeling I want to promote in the world”.

But I know I’m asking too much. I need to just shut my cake hole and go back to running up more credit card debt to buy new stuff I don’t need to replace the old stuff that still works but isn’t as cool as the newest model. I should just bury my head in the sand and take let life steamroll over me. I need to admit that I cannot control my own fate or influence society with my own values. I need to be a good little sheep.

wulffmorgenthaler.com

the guys at wulffmorgenthaler.com summed it up best in one frame...again.

Called off

Sorry to say that the party was called off. But I did venture out to get myself a little farther into debt. Our tv broke down and we had to to go out and buy a new one. Surprisingly, it was the Dear Wife and not I, who pushed for going the extra mile to bring home a 42" plasma screen. Don't get me wrong, I'm completely happy with our decision. it just surprised me that she-the sensible one of the two of us-who was willing to juggle spending on other things in order to plop down the big bucks for a huge and very cool tv.
Last night I couldn't sleep. This happens sometimes, that I close my eyes and lie down (not necesarily in that order) and sleep elludes me. I don't want to make the pregnant woman's night any more difficult so I get up and go downstairs. Last night, I couldn't resist tossing in the Followship of the Ring dvd. It was just like being in a theater except that the seats are more comfortable, the floor isn't sticky, there're no cell phones ringing or teenagers making all kinds of noise. Of course, I didn't have candy or popcorn, but I can sacrafice that for he comfort of my own house! So, now we have somewhere around 2400 hours left of tv life until this new beast give out and we have to go replace it.

Shindig

Yup, it's time for me to host again. Saturday night, if you can come, stop by and say hi. And remember the words of Stevie Ray Vaughn, "If the house is rockin' don't bother knockin', just come on in."

humanity

The word humane has very positive connotations. People refer to repression and torture as being inhumane practises of evil governments. But, after seeing at the way people treat animals I don't think we can use that word in a positive way. I know some people will, at this point, stop reading so as not to hear yet another tree-hugger talk/write about our relationship to the world around us. But I have just seen something that made me feel sick. First off, I have to say that I like to eat meat. I like to eat fish. I like chicken eggs for breakfast.
So, I am a hypocrite, to some degree. I know the torture that fish must go through before finally suffocating in the hold of a ship. I know about the small pens in which chickens and milking cows are kept all their life. But for some reason those things do not bother me all that much. I don't know why. It's irrational, but it's the truth of my hypocrisy and I will face the music in the next life.
Today I saw a video of the way dolphins are treated in a village in Japan. If you can stomach it, you can see it here: http://www.glumbert.com/media/dolphin but do think twice before watching it and I would not suggest showing it to young children. It got me to thinking that we really aren't that far from the beasts themselves sometimes. We do this kind of thing to each other from time to time, as well. I am absolutely sure that if crabs were our size we would not be able to swim in the ocean or go to the beach. they would rip us apart with the same kind of apathy shown by these Japanese people (I can't call them fishermen if they're not catching fish).

This was a bit of a shock. I suppose that killing something as big as a whale or dolphin is more of a gruesome than slaughtering thousands of tons of herring in a single net (which is what happens to the herring). But the act of such destruction seems to me to be the same no matter what organism is the subject of the attack. I don't really understand why it is, then that I am far more affected by the sight of dolphins flopping about bleeding to death when it doesn't bother me so much to watch a mackerel that I just caught flopping on the deck. It should be the same, but for some reason it's completely different. Why do you suppose that is?

Back to work...

Here I am

I'm bouncing now between Reykjavík and Sandgerði. There is a research station in Sandgerði where the university has a bit of space that wasn't being used. That's closer to my house so I asked if I could work there instead. It's much better than moving the slide projector to and fro in the university building as classes start and I'm kicked out of the room where I set up. Right Now I'm in Reykjavík awaiting the start of a lecture about surveying. This is part of a course in Geographic Information Systems (GIS). So far it's fun and school is going pretty well for me still. I love my work and I love the freedom it provides me.