SnowCrash

2007-05-05T13:31:00.000-04:00

Check it: http://blog.waywarddiamonds.com/

2006-01-25T08:07:00.000-05:00

So it's been almost a year.

I'm not really coming out of blogbernation, but there's this think called "clocking" going around, so I figure I'd take part.

7 things which I want to do before I die:
1. Find the love of my life and make a family of my own
2-7. Everything else is pretty much fleeting and doesn't really matter that much. I could say things like "skydiving", or "learn another language", and those things would be fun, but far from necessary for me to be happy.
7 things I can do:
1. Create music
2. Write
3. See the big picture
4. Annoy people (myself included)
5. Learn something new really fast
6. Get along with almost anybody
7. Empathize
7 things I can't do(or am very bad at):
1. Schedule, organize, keep things straight
2. Find my significant other
3. Find any sort of direction in life
4. Keep my focus consistently
5. Deal with ignorant, biased, people.
6. Live far away from loved ones
7. Stop myself from falling into temporary depression every now and then
7 famous people that fascinate me:
1. DaVinci, simply because he could sleep for 15 minutes every hour instead of 8 hours a night.
2.-7. dunno
7 things that intrigue me in other people:
1. How people can get hung up on something 100% inconsequential.
2. How short-sighted and narrow-minded many otherwise intelligent people can be.
3. How another person can make my heart melt.
7 sentences or words which I frequently use:
1. Sæll
2. Bah
3. Ertekkagrínast
4. vottðef0kk
5. theoretically...
6. I read somewhere that...
7. dísus

And finally:
I have a feeling that I know or understand something that nobody else knows or can understand. I merely have yet to discover it.

2005-05-25T16:04:00.000-04:00

Today's topic is Music and Age.

I recently applied to my old music school to start my singing studies formally (been taking private lessons). I was accepted with no problems. However, 5
other guys were not. The reason? They were too old.
It had nothing to do with their background, their proficiency, or money. They
were simply too old.
This struck me as a little odd, so I did some digging around. Apparantly it
has to do with the fact that music schools here are supported by the City. So
they don't want to support older people. Fine. Allow them to apply anyway,
just make them pay full price.
But no, that's not allowed in Iceland, because everything is supposed to cost
the same for everybody. So music school for the older people costs the same,
they just can't buy it.
Hmm, anyone else see a double standard here?

So anyway, these people are told pleasantly to go apply to the music college,
where (I gather) there is no age bias. Problem is, when they go there, they
are told they do not have enough background to be admitted. Where can they get
the appropriate background? Why, in the original school, the one with the age
bias, remember?
Catch-22
When people raise their voice about this blatant discrimination they are either
told "go take private lessons" or "what the hell do you want to start learning
music for at your age? You should be ashamed!". Let's discuss the issues those
2 comments raise.

Private lessons are fine. However, they do not replace a full music education.
You do not explicitly study the literature surrounding your instrument. You
do not partake in any group activities. You do not get to absorb the culture
surrounding your instrument and its relatives. You do not get to meet other
people who play your (and other) instruments, and do not get to play with them.
These aspects of music education are collectively MUCH more important than
private lessons.

Now we come to an issue which I feel is so absurd it borders on being absolute
gibberish: the bias people instinctively have towards grownup beginners. This
is apparent in many other fields, I'm sure, but I want to talk about music.

Let's take an example:You go to a concert at a music school, let's say a young relative of yours is
playing. He plays well for his age (maybe only 10) and you are proud.
Following him is a 50 year old man, playing the same instrument, and does so
better than your relative, but still only at a beginner's level. What is your
immediate response?
Disdain, disgust, embarrasment, shock, etc.
For some unexplainable reason, people think there is something "dirty" about
this situation. "I mean for god's sake! This guy MUST have some ulterior motive, right?
Nobody in their right mind would begin music studies at the age of 50, let
alone put themselves in a position of ridicule like that, would they? I say
he's a child molester, let's ostracize him."

People, get your heads out of your asses.

Whoever said learning is only for the young? I have had people (whom I
otherwise consider enlightened) answer this with "of course it's not just for
the young. But those older people shouldn't show themselves like that, and
they definitely shouldn't be playing with the children. I don't care if they
study music, as long as they keep it to themselves." This sounds like someone trying to be liberal about something he thinks is vile and despicable. "I don't care if that person takes part in domination games in the bedroom as long as he keeps it to himself."

This is plain and simple, unfounded discrimination. There is no "grey" about
this matter, it is quite black-and-white. Just imagine what would happen if
someone were to act as shocked when seeing a person of a different skin color
studying music; or a different gender. Hmm, are we back in the 19th century
yet?

A final note: whether or not you have the potential for music proficiency at ANY age, has nothing to do with this argument. I will discuss that in a future post

2005-04-27T11:29:00.000-04:00

So what is it with everyone's obsession with "finishing" things?

Actually, wrong question. The right one is:

So what is it with people who can't (or won't) get started on something if they realize that it can't (or most likely can't) ever be finished? Why is "finishing" something necessarily the high point of a project? I mean, how many people go on a vacation and wait for it to be over with crazed anticipation?
In my mind, the actual "doing" of things is what is important. As some wise man said "it's not the destination, it's the journey" (paraphrased by Freysi). I have never really finished anything I've ever written (with the exception of that one short story, but that's not really finished, need to fix it up). If I all of a sudden started thinking "what's the point of me writing at all? I never finish things" or "ok THIS time I'm gonna finish this story" (causing me to become more and more bitter as I impose this deadline on myself and never fulfil it), then I would probably never write anything ever again. Which would be a terrible loss for me, because I so enjoy writing. And when I'm writing, the only stuff going through my head are things directly related to my writing, not worries about when it will be done, how much I have left, or whether I will ever finish it.
I think those kind of thoughts are destructive, which is one reason why I don't want to make any passion of mine my daily work.

Books, movies, TV shows, they're different. Oftentimes I'll sit through something I don't necessarily enjoy very much, if only for the sense of completeness I get at the end. But that is so different from a personal project. In media, you are taking part in a prewritten story, which is written in a way to make you want to see more, to find out what really happens. In real life, there ain't nuthin' written before hand. So the fun is in the "writing", not the completing.

Let's say, for sake of argument, that you could download the memory of having written a bestselling novel straight into your brain. You know have the memory of all that hard work and the sense of completeness after having published it. But you never really experienced it. How many of you have ever wished you could relive some moment, or some period in your life? *raises a hand* It's the experience that counts, not some self-imposed feeling of satisfaction after completing something. It basically boils down to this:

Who cares what you do as long as you're having fun?

I have this feeling that some people force themselves to stop having fun and pretend that it's important to have a "reality check" and reassess the situation. Example:
Programmer A and B have good jobs and good job security. They both start working on a project in their free time and spend every waking moment on it. They both have lots of fun. However, they both realize that this is probably something which will never be completed; which they will never get any recognition for. Programmer A takes that thought and trashes it, he doesn't care, he's having fun. He'll stop this project once he stops having fun. Programmer B takes that thought and considers it carefully, realizing the truth behind it and scraps the project. Thus the project is no longer bringing him enjoyment.

Now which makes more sense to you? I think the key word in there is recognition. Some people feel the constant need to be patted on the back for what they do, and thus are not able to glean enjoyment from anything they do not finish.

Bah. Anyway, just me ranting, dunno where I wanted to go with that.

2005-04-25T13:48:00.000-04:00

I've been sitting around for a while, twiddling my thumbs when I thought "Hey, why don't I go ahead and blog?" Been a while.
Couple of notable things have happened recently:
- Moved into the new house with mamma and pabbi; me own little apartment.
- Bought a car
- Got my payraise
- Set my apartment on fire

Apart from that, I've just been enjoying myself, playing video games and just hanging around :)

I'm almost back into my apartment, they managed to clean everything and I'm still waiting for the carpenter to come and replace the floor in my bedroom, then it's just out to buy a new bed and move back in. There's still a strong smell here though, not smoke but from the cleaning stuff they used.

Anyway, I'm not sure whether I'll continue updating this blog. I originally thought of it as a way to keep people back home updated on what was going on while I was in the states. Now that I'm home....maybe I'll just post on Los Otros. We'll see.

2004-12-10T04:48:00.000-05:00

Ok, I wrote this about a week ago, but blogger has been acting up, so here goes again....

Hey guys.Well, a lot has happened since last time, biggest news of course that I've moved home. And by that I mean HOME; back in my old room at my parents' house. It's a temporary situation, but it's just fine for me. People have been telling me "good LORD Freysi, don't move back home with your parents", but I really don't see what's the problem with that. I mean, as long as one's life is separate and one pays rent, what's the difference?For example, m&p bought this great new house (which they haven't yet moved into) which has an apartment on the ground floor. At this point it is very likely that I will move into this apartment when they move there and pay them rent. It definitely will be different from now, since I will have my own kitchen and washroom, but I'll still be in my parents' basement.So anyway, got my computer back together finally (thanks for sending my mobo Freyja, I'll figure out how to repay you :) ), and I'm slowly but surely re-establishing my presence as a trumpet player around here. I have a job now, working as an "engineer" (fancy name for a programmer) at a company specializing in DNS software. Apparently they are some hot shit in the business world today, making deals with companies like Nokia, British Telecom and Microsoft. It's interesting stuff, the place is nice (it's an old Icelandic townhouse that has been renovated. The sales department resides in what was once the manure house), and the people are crazy. The salary is decent enough for someone with no real experience in the industry, only those 2 summers at Kögun, but in three months' time, they will reevaluate my performance and we will renegotiate a contract. I expect a significant raise at that point.I'm also planning all sorts of other stuff. I'm looking at the possibility of completing my MS degree here alongside work, or maybe taking something completely different, like business or psychology, maybe even back into music, composing or something. On the hobby side I am going to take singing lessons and am working on setting them up now. I'd also love to learn how to play the drums. As a direct result of this new work I've rekindled my interest in networking and once I finally move I am going to get a couple old computers and fool around with them. I am also going to set up one computer with some music software, get myself a decent keyboard and a mike and attempt to write some music. And finally, I'm going to get back into shape.So lots of stuff going on. Apart from my hobbies I have a bunch of stuff I need/want to buy, which shouldn't be a problem now that I'm making money :). A car, a real stereo system, a real TV or maybe just a projector, a real phone, and of course, a playstation 2. Ahh the necessities in life.By the way, I will keep this blog in english since I still have a handful of american readers.

2004-11-09T05:45:00.000-05:00

It's always funny how certain things pop up into your mind fully formed, as if your mind has been working on them without telling you about it. In fact, that's pretty much what happens. You think consciously about something, like "Hunh, that X is weird", then forget about it, but your mind does not forget. Then 2 months later, when you're on the toilet, you go "Oh yeah! That's what X is about." This happened to me just the other day, albeit not on the toilet. No, while I was in the groggy, half-comatose state I'm in early in the morning I all of sudden realized why I don't enjoy research in an institution such as UMD.
The important point here is that it's not that I don't enjoy research, it's that I don't enjoy it under the circumstances which I found myself the past year. I have many, many ideas which could easily become a full doctoral thesis, and new ones are born each day. I would love the chance to work on all of them, however - and this is what I realized - I want to work on them on MY terms. Even though the professors were not pushing me in any way, in fact were very laid back, I was still working under their terms and their schedule. So I can see myself being very happy getting some job and then spending my free time working on my own personal research stuff. This line of thinking ties directly into a philosophy I have now discussed with many people, and not yet come to any conclusion.The world today seems to be oriented in such a way to allow young people to "follow their goals". Parents (and others) encourage their children to "follow their heart" and to learn what they want to learn, the future be damned. I have read many many articles comparing people who went after "the money" and people who followed "their passion". Each time, the people who followed their passion are portrayed as having the obvious upper hand, both in salary (money follows passion) and in general wellness of being. However, in addition to this their is an ever increasing rate of divorce throughout the world and people are having children later and later; the "fundamental" family structure is changing. So I started looking around myself, comparing my family to many others I know.
Of all my close friends who are not musicians, I am the only one who has a "normal" family, i.e. parents are still together. (All my musician friends also do, but that is an unrelated, albeit interesting fact). My family is great, we always have lots of fun when we get together, and my friends who come over invariable like us. But we're the exception.What if - in light of the fact that people follow their passion for work - the enthusiasm people have for work is having this effect on the family structure? I want to take my pabbi as an example, even though our family has (thankfully) not followed this path of breaking up.
Pabbi works hard every day, and loves his job and is good at it. It's something he can focus all his efforts into and it has meaning for him. He comes home in the evening and almost always takes care of dinner as well. Then he poops out in front of the TV, often times doing some extra paperwork on his laptop at the same time. For the longest time, when I was younger, I didn't really understand the "pooping out" part. I always thought, "why doesn't he do something; something he enjoys outside his work?" Then I got my own job one summer, working as a computer programmer/designer. I'd work hard, on challenging things, programming fiercly, debugging, walking around, talking to people, debating my points and affecting the design of a multibillion dollar program. (yesyes, I'm gloating a little). Then I'd come home and poop out.
I realized that working all day on something which you can really pour all your effort into is exhausting. Even if I don't move a muscle all day, apart from typing and using the mouse, I'd be absolutely drained when I came home. Which I didn't like, because I had so many other things that I wanted to do, to work on. So that got me thinking...
Why spend my passion on my work? Why not save my passion for things I wanted to do on my own terms? People say, "To have a passion which you can get paid for is heavenly." I say, "to have a passion which you do get paid for is hell, for in the end, it will destroy your passion." Why not go do some work every day which is not too draining, physically or mentally, and then spend the rest of the day (with your extra energy) on things which you love; which you would really like to spend time on. And for those people who like to work out and want to stay in great shape, get a physically demanding job. Then you don't have to spend precious hours of your free time working out, plus you save the cost of paying for a gym. Let's say for example, your passion gives you 300.000 kr ($4,000+) a month, and the physically demanding alternative 170.000($2,500). Let's also assume you live alone. So after a workday with your passion you come home and are exhausted. More often than not you'll order in. You'll have high hopes of getting into shape, and pay for a gym. More often than not, you won't go. So you start to get fat, and depressed, and spend money on stuff to make you happy, etc. On the other hand, after a workday in the physically demanding alternative you come home and even though your body is tired, you have not spent any mental energy and have been spending the dull moments of your day pondering things to work on. You come home eager to try out the stuff you came up with today, to solidify the ideas. You don't have to worry about getting into shape, the job is doing it for you. You are getting paid to look good. As an effect of that, you eat better, you have more energy to do stuff, and generally feel better. Yes, you have less money, but as long as you get by and are happy, that's beside the point, right?
So these examples might be a bit extreme, and there are people who don't fit into either category, my pabbi one of them. He is in the former, but is in fact very happy with his life, even though he is tired after a day's work. However, my point still remains. Whether or not this is something that I'm seriously considering...I still haven't made up my mind on that. I probably need to experience more than just a summer's worth of full time work to figure that out. It seems to be such a different way of thinking, such a radical change from what we know, but also makes perfect sense to me. Anyway, it'll be in the back of my mind over the next few years. We'll see what happens.
As for real-life news, I'm coming home on Thursday, wheee!
Actually I land on Friday morning, but for me, it's only 2.60791 days til my plane leaves. I've been slowly but surely packing (too...much...stuff O_O ), and giving stuff away (the biggest, and most happy recipient being my trashcan). I already have on job interview. They wanted to meet me on Friday, but I said no way, so Monday it is. So anyway, I still have my old phonenumber if anybody wants to reach me over the weekend. I'll definitely be in touch with as many as I can.

2004-10-29T17:33:00.000-04:00

I'm baaaack.
So my trip around New England was fun. Started out by going to Boston to stay with Stulli and Sissa.
So lets see...straight description of what I did, when, and with whom, followed by an anlysis of my reaction and feelings toward Boston, how's that sound?
First off, the ride to Boston was looong, like almost 9 hours (with a half hour stop in NY). Got into town a little earlier than I'd said cause I caught an earlier bus, so I ended up sitting on Stulli's front step for about an hour or so. The thing is, I've gotten so used to me being late for stuff that I have forced myself to be ready earlier. So I'd look at the timing schedules, figure out when I'd need to leave, when I'd need to wake up and such, and then set my clock for an hour earlier than that, just in case everything goes wrong. So nothing went wrong and I was at the bus station 2 hours before I should have been. The ticket lady was nice enough to just change my ticket so I could catch the next bus instead.
Anyway, Stulli and Sissa come home and we go immediately to a party with some of their musician friends. Nice people, very different from the people I've gotten to know here in DC. More on that later...Day after that was spent lounging around, and watching game 3 of the Red Sox VS Yankees. Stulli had to wake up early on sunday morning to go to some studio. I decided to tag along. This was one of those "studio-in-a-barnhouse" studios, way out in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by a white picket fence, a bunch of huge slightly hilly meadows, and a lake. Pretty surreal. So while Stulli was recording, I was going to go for a walk. I didn't. Instead I slept in the car. But it was still interesting.
The rest of my week with them was spent going to visit music schools, going out to eat, and watching the Red Sox beat the Yankees. For game 7 we actually went downtown to a sports bar, watched the game with all the bostonian neanderthal sports-types and their girlfriends, and the other fascinated, non-sports types like us, not really there for the sports, but for the spectacle invariably surrounding the sports. As the Sox slowly but surely beat back the Yankees, the bar became louder and louder, at moments becoming completely deafening, for example when Some Dude hit a home run while the bases were loaded, also known as a Grand Slam. Once the Sox actually won the game, the whole scene erupted in screaming, jumping, and generally hysterical people, pounding each other's open palms, proving to me that even in a heightened sense of sports-induced fervor, their social boundaries were so ingrained as to stay intact. In Iceland, if we were to win the Swedes in handball (our own little rivalry with a curse), and you were at a bar downtown with loads of drunk people, the person next to you would be liable to picking you up and swinging you around in glee and then tossing you to the next person to do the same.
Outside, the scene was just as crazy, the streets absolutely stuffed with people shouting, cheering and generally very happy. The police had an obvious but as of yet, neutral presence. The actual size of it was not the most interesting thing to me. I've been in crowds of this size before, even larger. No, it was the way the crowd acted which interested me. I am of course cursed with only being able to compare things in the US to things I know, being Icelandic mostly and to a small degree European. So I will compare this crowd to a Icelandic/European crowd.
The most striking thing is the lack of physical contact. In a crowd this huge, and after such a significant event (for those of you who didn't know, this is an 86 year old feud with the yankees, otherwise know as The Evil Empire, by the Rebel Bostonians), normally you'd (I'd) expect to be jostled, bumped into, toe-trodden, and in general, tossed around by the waves of movement as the people comprising the crowd tried to combine movements of joy with movements of trying-to-stay-the-hell-on-my-feet. In fact, this did not happen at all. Once in a while someone would bump into you, but in the most part, you'd have this bubble around you. Granted only about half an inch thick, but still there. Sure you'd bump into people and touch them while trying to get past, but definitely not the suffocating closeness apparent in places like Roskilde. It was as if every person had like a tiny, yet significant negative magnetic charge.
So anyway, people start to climb up stuff and stand on ledges doing some stupid dance (don't know what that's about) and then we decided to head home, since nothing was really happening, people just seemed to be there to wait for something TO happen. Pretty much as soon as we left, people started to break stuff.
What the hell is that all about?
You guys just won your little curse thingy, you're supposed to be happy. Go home and have crazy sex, don't go and break some stupid plastic sign. I mean, come on! I was not impressed. It seemed the whole point of this get together was twofold, one to go and have fun. Most normal people realized that this would only last for about half an hour, or until number two - starting a riot - happened. I also saw this after UMD won that basketball game last year. Students all went downtown, not really to celebrate, but to wait for the police to show up in their riot gear and for some nutters to burn something and then get taken down by the police. I guess they get some kind of kick out of it, because they stand there and hang around, all the way until the police see the need to start to get rough, and then everybody would make like a lemming and run away. To me it sounds like sick entertainment, spawned by a culture chock full of jaded young people who are totally bored with violence on tv, so why not make some of their own. But it's harmless because "they're celebrating" and they can blame it all on police brutality and thus excuse it in their own pitiful minds.
Sigh.
Anyway, the reason I got so indignant about this is because a girl died. The police used plastic bullets to subdue some of the rioters (who are almost always college students), and one of the bullets ricocheted and hit a non-violent student in the eye, killing her. That pretty much made me NEVER want to go to a post-sports "celebration" in the US EVER again, nor would I want anyone I know to go.
After all that Stulli and Sissa rented a car and we drove up to Vermont. They were going to stay in some farm, Stulli's grandfather owned, and I got a ride to Hildur's place out in the middle of nowhere. Those 2+ days were really quite nice, just hanging out, playing scrabble, watching tv, fooling around with instruments and such. On saturday we went to a fundraising dinner at the local church, thanksgiving style food, pretty good. Interesting gettogether, the kind where everybody knows everybody and such. Apparently, right before we got there, J.D.Salinger was there. After that we went to Hildur's friends' house, sat around and Bushwhacked (general term for a conversation centered around how much of a dipshit Bush is) for a while.
Sunday, Hildur and I went up to visit Dori, one of Hildur's ex-girlfriends. She owns some land way up north in Vermont, totally wooded, mountainous area, and she needed some help getting this lawnmower started. Well...lawnmower might not be the right term. How about something like Destroyer of Small Trees, or The Shredder of Shrubbery (bring us a shrubbery!). It was frankenmower, this crazy thing which literally could mow down small trees, but it was still pretty much the size of a normal hand-pushed mower...with a huge motor on top...and a choke...and 4 gears. So we cleared a 10,000 foot wide area underneath her apple tree orchard, which had become overgrown with small trees (ergo the destroyer of small trees. Seriously folks, the manual says it can cut reliably through trees/branches with a diameter of 2 inches. That's like, your ARM for example).
Adventure follows adventure, so we turned of the crazy mower, jumped into a huge pickup truck, and headed high into her land, saying things like "Is that the road? Oh wait, it's there." and then just driving through some underbrush and trees. Seriously, I think there never was any road, we were just lucky. Nah just kidding, but that road was pretty tight. In fact, at one point, where we had to turn around, we actually got quite firmly stuck. Of course, this being the far north-east of the US, everybody who's anybody has a chainsaw. Those trees hemming us in sure regretting growing where they had..er..grown.
Grabbed a train to New York, where I stayed for the next 4 days with my cousin Peter and his girlfriend Courtney. They were mostly busy while I was there so I just roamed around the city, doing touristy things. Went the the Empire State building, tried twice to get to the Statue of Liberty but it was sold out both times. Public Library, Times Square, Grand Central Station, Central Park, I even walked like about half the length of Broadway. I probably walked over 15 miles in NY. We went out to eat once, and peter and I went out to a couple bars the last night. It was calm and very nice. Just got "home" yesterday.
Oh yeah, and I bought new shoes, a $200 gold-plated mouthpiece designed by Maynard Ferguson, and a Game Boy Advance SP with 2 games.

So this trip, especially the Boston/Vermont part, got me thinking more about music and my future. I did go to like 5 music schools in Boston and I immediately felt much better there than in DC. Traditionally I have tried to stay away from making such decisions right off the bat, because by nature, they're not very logical. However, recently I have started to trust my gut instinct much more than before, if only for the reason that I don't always have the time to allow my brain to catch up with my gut. And just like that first day, when my gut told me I'd hate DC it also says I'd love living in Boston. So that's definitely something for me to think about.
In any case, at this point, all I have to think about is packing up and buying my ticket, all that other stuff comes later.
Oh yeah! And mamma and pabbi just sold our house and bought a new one! They will move right after new year's. Exciting!

2004-10-10T11:29:00.000-04:00

So here's what happened.
Last monday I figured I get a head start since Tótla had assured me they would all go to New Orleans the next (this) weekend. So I bought a ticket online. Then on wednesday, Tótla says they all backed out because they misread their school schedule, have tests right after the weekend and such. So there I was stuck with a non refundable ticket+hotel.
As soon as I heard this I had a little burst of anxiety telling me "don't go alone! don't do it!". I quelled that immediately thinking "well, this would be a perfect opportunity to travel alone, maybe do some writing." So I began to plan leaving, looking at busses and packing. During this time this bad, anxious feeling started to grow for some reason and right before I left, it got to the point where I just said "screw this, I'm staying."
Now, I'm not one to believe in premonitions or anything like that. I don't pretend that this feeling had something to do with a "feeling that something bad was going to happen". In fact I think people who say that are hiding the real reason for why they didn't go, whatever that may be. I'm not really sure why I didn't want to go, I just know when I decided not to, I felt immensely relieved and that's really all that matters. Do I regret not seeing New Orleans? Yes, but I will go there in the future, most definitely. I then realized that this feeling was identical to my school situation.
1. Opportunity to do something interesting in a far off place.
2. Already paid for
3. Alone
4. A feeling of unease towards it, and yet also a feeling that I shouldn't miss this opportunity
The only difference, it took me a year to make the decision here while only a couple days for the NO trip. So I think I've learned to listen to my gut feeling. At least there are no regrets about NO, as I know there will not be about USA.

2004-09-29T19:08:00.000-04:00

Sorry about the long delay between blogs. There's a lot going on in ma brain these here days.
I spent the weekend in Pennsylvania and New York. Fred, one of Þóra's and co. old friends had his 50th birthday party in Milford PA. They own 2 cottages there, right on the Delaware river, so we had this huge "backyard" (quotes because it wasn't so much a yard as a cleared out patch of the surrounding forest) where the party was held. Lotsa food, lotsa booze, 4 girls standing on the back of a renovated 1935 pickup truck playing bluegrass music while we all square-danced. I actually didn't take part in the dancing, was going to, but I was the odd man out.
Spent the night there in one of the cottages and then we headed out to Peter's and Courtney's place in New York.
Pretty amazing place, New York. Extremely overwhelming. Peter's place is teeny, but sells for like $400,000. Crazy. Fred and Helen's place is the same. Reminded me of Manuel's house in Spain, with all the narrow hallways and stuff.
Blah, not really in the mood to describe it all. Suffice to say it was fun.
Yesterday went to see Keane in concert. Ok band, interesting, singer, drums, keyboard, that's it. They were late.
On to more important things. What the hell is going on in my life these days?
Well, I'm finishing up my work here, will be done by the weekend. Then next week I'll start packing things and sending home with Eimskip. Also gonna put up some ad for selling my stuff here, fridge, chair, bike. Then...travel, travel, travel.
The weekend of the 8th, I'm going to New Orleans. Tótla is going there with a bunch of friends, so I figured I might as well go along, since I've always wanted to go there. That will be until the following monday. After that, back to College park, more packing, and then off to Boston on the 15th, to meet up with Stulli. Gonna stay there most likely for a week, then jump up to Vermont to stay with Hildur and Karen for the weekend of the 22nd. Finally, on the way back, I'm hoping I will be able to stay with Peter and Courtney a couple days in New York, do some sightseeing.
Húff, how does that sound? Funfunfun! I'm definitely looking forward to it.
I figure, actual moving home will happen in the first two weeks of november.

2004-09-16T04:33:00.000-04:00

Sooo ANYway....
If you thought my last post was a shocker, wait for this one.
Actually though, most of my family and closest friends already know this...so maybe not such a shocker. Oh well...
I just told my professors that I'm quitting the computer science department here in UMD.
Dun dun daaahhhh
They took it well, just asked why, and asked whether there was anything they could do to help me out. Nice guys, really. So, now beginneth a new phase in my life, wonder what that will be like?
I still haven't decided exactly what's gonna happen. I still have some loose ends to tie up with the research. But that won't take more than a couple of weeks, hopefully less. After that, I intend to go travel a bit, look at other places in the US. Gonna go with Freyja and Þóra to Pennsylvania for a couple of days. Gonna contact Hildur, see if I can come over to Vermont for a visit. A friend of mine is studying in Boston, I want to visit him too. And of course Peter and Courtney in New York. Also, Tótla is doing an exchange program in Jonesboro, Arizona. That could be interesting. She even had some plans to maybe travel into Texas; Dallas or Houston, I might join in.
The idea is not to just decide to move home without looking around. Who knows? I might find something interesting in one of these places. Either way, I'm incredibly relieved at finally having made this difficult decision. It's SUCH a load off my back. Who knows? I might be seeing some of you guys regularly before christmas.

2004-09-14T15:44:00.000-04:00

MUHAHAHA!
You'll never guess what I did this weekend.
Here are a couple of hints:
I travelled over 14000 kilometers.
I spent 26 hours travelling.
I came within 500 kilometers of Iceland, twice.

Okok, from the beginning.
Last tuesday, I woke up around noon, and an important decision had coalesced in my mind(more on that later). Anyway, because of that decision, I knew I had some stuff I had to do the day after (wednesday), during normal business hours...ergo, I needed to get to sleep not too late. Long story short, I stayed up too late.
I decided to play some video games and then realized, whoops! it was 6 in the morning. So I figured, if I went to sleep, I'd sleep through normal business hours and I didn't wanna do that, had some stuff needed to be done.
So I stayed up.
Came back around 2 pm, and wasn't exhausted yet, so I figured I might as well stay up til like 8, and get my cycle back to normal (not that it has been normal since I moved here....but ANYway). So I start to chat with people on msn, play some games, anything not requiring too much brainpower. My friend and fellow trumpet player Sævar pops online and we start to chat. He reminds me that my old wind orchestra Lúðrasveitin Svanur is going to this festival in Bad-Orb, Germany this weekend. So I go like "oh yeah, damn too bad I'm gonna miss that. Say hi and drink some beers for me."
A couple of minutes later, Íris, Sævars wife and also a good friend of mine comes online and says something to the effect of:
"You should come to bad-orb!! YAY!"
And we start to joke about that for a while, "yeah, that would be kinda funny haha." So just for laughs, I start up google and type in:
"Plane tickets Stuttgart" (they live in stuttgart)
I click on the first link which brings me to a page with a form on it, telling you to fill out when you want to leave, what your destination is and your contact information. So, me being quite tired and silly, I said whatthehey, and filled it out. Stuttgart, tomorrow.
Two hours later, after I had totally forgotten about that, the phone rings.
"Hi, you sent a request about a plane ticket tomorrow?"
"Er....yeah.." (*heart racing*)
"Well, I got one for 5pm tomorrow for ya."
"Urmm, can you call back in an hour?"
I had no idea how to react. I needed to speak to someone, so I got Sævar and Íris back on the line, and they set up a webcam connection and we all laughed and shouted and jumped around in excitement while waiting for the guy to call back. Which he did (after an initial moment of doubt on my part). And so I bought a ticket to Stuttgart, with a transfer through Amsterdam, for 5pm on Thursday. (the day after)
The trip itself was a pain. 7.5 hour flight from Dulles to Amsterdam. Land in Amsterdam at 6 in the morning friday, hang around for 2 hours for connecting flight, then 1 hour flight from amsterdam to Stuttgart, where Sævar, Íris, and their little imp Hlynur picked me up. This was the first time I'd met 2 year old Hlynur, and I must say, this kid is klikkaður (but in a good way :) ). They already had another musician friend of ours (Fjalar) staying with them, and now another Icelandic musician friend, and Hlynur was just absolutely ecstatic. Two more big nice guys to jump around on.
Anyway, we had decided that my arrival would be a surprise to everyone, so I didn't mention it at all. So we drive out to Bad-Orb, which should have taken less than 3 hours but took 5 because I tried to navigate.
***Inside joke alert***
"Let's follow Fulda"
***End of Inside joke alert***
Nah, I wasn't only to blame, we all got lost, but it was fun.
And yes, when we finally get there, my arrival was a huge surprise. Just the looks on everybody's faces was totally worth going there, and the warm greeting I got. The whole trip itself warrants a full blog, which I might write later. Suffice to say for now, we spent 3 days there playing music, drinking beer, eating bradwurst, and generally rocking the place.
On sunday, Sævar, Íris, Fjalar, Hlynur and I went back to stuttgart and had an early night. Next day, they took me around Stuttgart, showing me around. (they actually took the day off, just for ME) Seems like a really nice place to live. Something about it that made one feel at ease, can't quite explain it.
After a very nice day on the town, we came back and watched some hilarious, and sometimes embarrassing, videos of Öndin playing at Kaffi Vín the last 2 menningarnætur.
Jón Ingvar: "LALALALALALALALAAAA!"
Us watching "BWAHAHAHAH!"
My flight back was at 6 the next morning, and I just walked in the front door, after a gruelling 14 hours of travel.
But it was soooo worth it.
That's it for now folks, sorry if I made people worried, but I couldn't pass up this opportunity. More on some thoughts and possible Bad-Orb, later.

2004-08-30T21:08:00.000-04:00

Here we go, another "what did I do this weekend" blog.
Well, I was all set to spend the entire weekend playing videogames when I noticed that Dave sent me a mail on Friday saying "We're going to 2 parties this weekend". So I said what the hell.
First party was at a house called the "Lunderdome" after it's resident, Jason Lun. Clever. We get there at around midnight and right away it doesn't look promising. We see groups of people walking away, and as we step out of our car a police car zooms past. Well, the police car did not bust the party, and it turned out that the people leaving were going skinnydipping. Of course, we didn't know about that until later, otherwise we might have joined them :)
The party was fine, open bar as seems to be the norm around here, and we chatted a little, I got to know Georg a little bit, turns out he is a rock climber, and he managed to convince me that I should try it out. So I will.
You know, I've noticed that, for some reason, a certain type of american guy will take off his shirt at a party. Why they think this is cool is beyond me. It's something new to me, at least in a normal party scenario. You go out camping, or to a concert, fine, guys, go nuts. But in a party, in a house? Strange.
Second party we also got there at midnight, when half the people were gone. Dave brought the bottle of icelandic Brennivín I gave him at christmas and people had a taste. Most liked it for some odd reason, and some even likened it to gin, the rationale being, "they are both herbal". The host was a guy named Sandro, who is absolutely manic. Talks at speeds I thought were unimaginable and always has an input on everything...EVERYthing.
On sunday, Freyja, Þóra, and Andy had planned to meet up with me, talk birthday stuff and get something to eat, and I was looking forward to it. Too bad my body decided to be DEATHLY ILL, from drinking.
Sigh.
I couldn't believe it, saturday, after the first party, I was fine. Sunday, after the second, horrible. Drank more on friday, only rum. On saturday I drank mostly beer with 2 shots of Brennivín. Maybe it was the Brennivín? Either way, I was the worst company possible. And I'm sooo sorry guys. They took me out to look at cellphones and to find a local restaurant to eat at. All I could do was stay as still as possible, not daring to breath for fear of throwing up. I could barely even speak. Freyja gave me some pepto bismol tablets. They did help, in the sense that they made me throw up :) While we sat at a local restaurant and the three of them had some food, I had some water and ginger ale....and I managed to throw up 3 times. It was the first time I'd ever thrown up pink. Yay pepto bismol.
Buuut, I really did enjoy myself, listening to them talk and once in a while getting in some words. Þóra gave me some assorted fresh spices from her garden, and two tomatos and a green pepper. And then, as they were leaving, Þóra hands me a card which had a check in it for a ridiculously high amount, which I am to spend on trumpet lessons with Chris Gekker.
Silly Þóra (and peter, courtney and Kirk), you gave me way to much money! But thank you so much, I had already decided this was too expensive for me, especially since my funds are a little less this year than last. But now I can take about 8 classes, yay!
I really wasn't expecting gifts at all, just taking me out for food and a fun day would have been totally enough for me :) But I will make it up to you guys, I'll be better company next time.

Tonight I managed to cook my first salmon steak. I didn't think about marinading, and I totally underspiced it, although I tried using Þóras herbs, but it still tasted great. Salmon has such a strong flavor, maybe one shouldn't spice it too much? I also stir fried Þóra's green pepper in the same pan after frying the fish, which was pretty good as well. All in all, a success.

2004-08-26T13:08:00.000-04:00

I think I've figured out what one of my problems is (if not my main problem)
I only have an attention span of just under 3 years.
When I was in HR doing my computer science BS, I remember having so much fun, all the way until my last semester, when I couldn't wait for it to be over. This is the feeling I have pretty much every day out here. I can't wait for it all to be over so I can get on with my life, do the next interesting thing, whatever that may be. On the other hand, I already know about myself that I need structure to function. So this is the idea I had...
Get myself a steady job where I only have to work 75%, or like 6 hours a day, or less. At the same time, start to methodically go through every degree I could possibly have any interest in. A BS degree takes 3 years, which would be perfect for my attention span. This way I would have the structure (the job), and the constant bombardment of new and interesting things as well, along with new people every step of the way. How does that sound?
The things I see myself going into are:
Philosophy
Psychology
Literature
History
Any foreign language
Possibly even business or economics
And when I have nothing left to study, Law or medicine.

I think I've had enough with the computer/engineering/math side of the world :p
As an interesting side effect, having such a wide education, rather than deep, would possibly open up (carreer)paths I'd never thought about while digging my computer science hole.
Hey, maybe I'll just be a professional polymath.

2004-08-23T20:29:00.000-04:00

Back in the USSR...er, I mean, USA.
I'm not going to detail my whole vacation, it would take too long and probably bore most of you to tears. I'll just jump straight to the highlights.
Originally, I was only going to stay for 2 weeks, from July 28, to August 14. But, then I learned the the Reykjavík Night of Culture (Menningarnótt) was scheduled for August 21. There was absolutely no way I would miss that event. Each year, I and the dixieland band I am a member of (The Dixie Duck) play at the same place, and this is my favorite night of the year. Each year we manage to bring more and more people and have more fun than the previous year, and this time was no exception. In the whole of downtown Reykjavík, there were about 100,000 people that night. We probably had about a thousand of those people stop by our concert in the tiny Kaffi Vín, at some point during the evening. The closest tables were of course inhabited by our most supportive fans, who called me before to make sure I'd save them a spot. They are there every year, and each time they manage to bring a couple friends and convert them into raving fans of the Dixie Duck.
The highlight of our concert is without doubt our "impromptu" parade down Laugavegur, Reykjavík's main street. Around 1 am, when the official schedule is long over, and people are at the peak of their partying, we march down Laugavegur mardi gras style, pulling a crowd of hundreds with us, all the way down the the center of the city, where the masses rival the partying on our national holiday. This year, we had the largest parade yet. Before the concert we had sent a notice to a Jazz newsletter, asking all players to come along with their instruments and join us. We ended up having about 10 extra players, trumpets, trombones, and saxophones. In addition to this, the crowd following us, dancing, singing along, and generally being merry, was larger than ever before. I estimated at least a thousand followed us down the street, with a couple hundred more filling in on the way as others dropped out.
We ended back up at Kaffi Vín with the stragglers from our parade, and the people who decided to wait for our return and use the time to drink more beer, and played our last set til about 3am, when a neighbor started complaining.
But I'm way ahead of myself.
The original timing for my visit home was to coincide with Úlla's wedding. Yup, my little sister is married. She and Manuel brought his whole family from Spain to take part in the festivities. Originally they weren't all going to come, but I'm glad they did. We all had a blast. Manu's older brother Javier brought his wife, Sara, and their two children, Daniel (4) and Marina (1-). His two younger siblings, Pablo and Maria came and partied hard with us, lotsa fun. And of course, his parents, Manuel and Carmen.
Of these people, only Úlla, Manu, and Javier were able to translate. Oh yeah, and Pablo as well, after drinking a six-pack :)
The wedding itself was at Skógar out in the country, and we stayed there at a hotel for the night. The day after was spent showing the Spanish family the wonders of the south part of Iceland. I'll reserve a detailed description of the wedding for Úlla. She will probably post something about it on our family blog.
Three days later, there was a wedding party in Reykjavík for the close family, Pabbi's brothers and Mamma's sisters, and pabbi's aunts, and their immediate families. All in all about 30-40 people. Some of Úlla's friends showed up as well...and got drunk at a record pace :) We ended up dancing a bit there before the older (and younger) people had to go home to bed. We not so young, but not too old people went out to party after that, and ended up dancing for about 4 more hours. The family left the day after, managing to make me promise to come visit and to learn Spanish.
The week after that was spent lying around, playing video games, chilling with Svanur, going to rehearsals for the Dixie Duck, and just getting ready for the Menningarnótt, and also preparing myself mentally for going back to the USA.
An interesting stroke of luck, a good friend of mine decided to get married this summer and sent me an invitation a couple of weeks before I came home....for the 21st of August. What's interesting is that I had just prolonged my visit the day before, so I was able to make it. On the 7th of August we had a bachelor party for him. Not a cheesy hollywood party mind you, just 18 guys driving around in a bus and getting drunk. We went sea fishing, watched Jóhann ride a $20,000 horse, listened to him read custom made, humorous poetry, went to an Icelandic ghost house (which is not scary by the way), and generally got drunk and had a good time. Actually though, I didn't drink, I had to pick up the Spanish family from the airport that night, so I just watched everyone else drink. Still, was lotsa fun.
So how's that for a disconnected jumble of events? Boy, you'd think I'd be able to tell things linearly. But then again, they say the best stories look like the roots of a tree, branching, diverging, sometimes circling. Hey, sounds like my life.
Who knows, maybe I might circle back to Iceland sometime soon.

2004-07-28T04:42:00.000-04:00

Well, here I am, 11 hours before Freyja comes to pick me up to go to the airport, and I can't sleep. I guess I still have some childlike anticipation left in me. I'm all packed and ready to go. I washed my clothes, emptied the fridge, and even did the dishes (my dishes, not my roomates'). Oh yeah, and I played some video games for about 4 hours.
I guess I'll just try to force myself to sleep now, so I'll be fresh and ready for the flight tomorrow. The long, grueling, hateful, flight. Not that I'm afraid of flying or anything. Far from it. Flying is just...so...boring. And uncomfortable. Why they have rows of seats is beyond me. They should have stacks of beds. Like in the overnight trains in Europe. They could easily put 2 levels in each aisle, possibly even 3 like they have on the trains. If we assume that a person lying down takes about two rows, then we need only 2 levels to have the same amount of passengers. Man I'd love to fly that way. You could split the plane in half, have seats in priority for the elderly and handicapped and beds for the rest of us.
Anyway, I'll be walking up the steps to my front door in Iceland in about 24 hours. YAY!
So blogging may be a bit sporadic the next few weeks, not that it hasn't been sporadic already, ah well. To you dedicated readers, don't give up on me, I will begin to blog more regularly again one school starts.

2004-07-27T06:05:00.000-04:00

Okok, so I'm stuck in lazy-blog land. It's summer, and my job is boring the hell outa me, so I haven't really had any reason to blog until now.
Coupla interesting things happened last few days.
First, some guy I have no idea who is commented on my analysis on The Passion. Yay! Some part of me knew that other people read my blog on occasion but I never really thought about it. For some reason I find this very interesting. Hey there might be people out there who have passively read everything I've written and know me pretty well by now! If any of you guys are cute girls around my age, let me know!
Muhahaha.
The other thing was an email I got yesterday. A woman from Georgia happened upon my site while looking for something on Icelandic translation. She has a friend living in Iceland who sent her a sentence in Icelandic and she wanted me to translate. Naturally I did so, since I'm such a nice guy. There's something flattering about knowing that strangers are looking at your website.
However.
The real reason for this blog was a revelation I had about myself and my current situation and fram of mind. It's brillinat I say, brilliant!
First some background. Let me try to describe the related aspects of my personality so I can make this revelation as interesting to you as it was to me. I am and have always been the type to jump into anything and everything fearlessly, even though I might get scared after actually jumping in. In the process of said jumping I have been hurt many times, but I have never let that faze me and always rebound eventually, ready for some more action. This is not so much a concious philosophy as it is an integral part of my personality. It's not something I can switch of, so to speak. And as such, it affects all parts of my life, both physical and emotional. I am the type who will meet someone and fall in love immediately. In fact, I have done so. And I have been hurt quite badly also.
So now for my current situation.
I have spent most of my time here in the US alone, reading, working, playing games, watching movies. I always assumed it was just because I was in another country, far away from most of my loved ones. But now I think that I would have felt EXACTLY the same anywhere in the world, it just would have been dulled by being at home with m&p's support, and all my friends.
So now for the revelation.
I realized that I am in self-exile. I have effectively removed myself from "the game" by just staying mostly alone. Instead of trying to go out, meet people, meet girls, possibly start a relationship, jump into it, and get hurt again, I have subconsciously "saved" myself by removing myself from the venue of said game. I could have tried to force myself to:
A. Not jump into things like I always do
B. Not allow failed relationships to have such an effect on me
C. Not open up as much as I do, as quickly as I do
However, this would mean trying to change what is me. I figure that my subconcsious, or whatever you wanna call it, kept me from compromising myself, while also keeping me from getting hurt again, by just keeping me away from the game. Brilliant I say!
I realized this while speaking to my good friend Úlfur. We are so very similar in this matter, go all out, and then wonder at why this girl walks all over us and then leaves. I sortof realized that this is all like gambling. You can play safely and maybe end up with a slight profit in the long run, or you can be the high-roller.
I am a high-roller. I find something that looks promising, and instead of betting low and hoping that it will stick around so I can bet low for a long time and profit in the long run, I bet everything on it. When I lose, I need time to regroup, find another promising prospect, and gather enough funds to make the next bet.
Right now, I'm gathering funds. And the only reason it's taking longer this time is because most of the people donating to my funds are far away.
Once I've regrouped, I will make another bet, and most likely lose again. This will continue ad nauseum, or until I win.
Here's hoping I win ;)

2004-07-14T17:18:00.000-04:00

Fleh.

2004-07-12T00:48:00.000-04:00

Okok, it's been way too long.
Nothing much happening lately, been working and playing hard. (mostly playing) I am still stuck in this place called limbo, where I haven't decided anything. However, I am managing to not think about it as much as I did before, resulting in an overall increase in my good spirits. Might also be due to the fact that I'll be home for almost a month in 2 weeks time. Anyway...
So I watched The Passion of Christ.
DISCLAIMER: I am not a religious person. I am not agnostic nor am I an atheist. I choose not to make a decision. I do, however, have strong negative feelings towards organized religious groups, such as the Catholic Church. Note, these feelings are not directed towards the catholic religion, nor towards catholics. People can believe whatever the hell they want, I don't give a flying rat's ass. But I digress...

This movie is completely and absolutely worthless.

This is a disgusting movie. It really has nothing to do with Christianity or Christ for that matter. It has no morales, no message, no nothing. What it does have is blood. This is a movie about torture. Plain and simple. Sure it tells the story of Christ after he gets caught, adds in a couple of flashbacks to some staple scenes where he says something straight from the bible.
Christ in this movie could have been replaced by any other character and this movie wouldn't have changed at all. It could have been called "The Passion of McDoodlefuck" and been about the torture of poor McDoodlefuck. Granted, there are scenes which everybody connects to Christ, the crown of thorns, the crucifixion. But this stuff is all just thrown in just to make sure you really know this is a movie about Christ.
Every single roman in this movie is a bloodthirsty pig who is controlled by some weird looking bald guy in a black dress who carries an ugly baby around with him. I think that is supposed to be the devil. The women do nothing but moan.
Cavaziel does a great job at being pathetic and blood-covered. Apart from that, there is no acting in this movie. Mary is just stone faced, and she gets a trademark-hollywood-single-tear scene. In another scene, she shows how sad she is by grasping two handfuls of sand.
Ok, so that's the movie part of what's wrong. Now for the religious part.
Is this actually what Catholic people like to see? Is this actually what their religion is based upon? Let's take a scene, where a person is tortured in the most gruesome way, and base our entire religion, code of morales, and lives, on it. Am I the only one who sees how sick this is? I mean, fine, when it is only in print you can sort of not imagine the disgusting aspects of it and focus on the good "died for our sins, yadayada". But when it is portrayed so bluntly in front of you, how can one even accept this? There were a couple of scenes in the movie which I found quite disturbing (apart from the torture). The first was after he is scourged and Mary and Magdelene come and wipe up his blood on a couple of white towels or something, and save them, sort of touching the blood, of course because the blood is "holy". The same thing happens later. Some woman, who is not introduced (but I'm sure devout Catholics know who she is supposed to be) goes up to Jesus as he is carrying his cross and hands him a white towel which he presses his face into. She then takes it and cuddles it to her own face. The third scene was after Christ is dead, and Longinus sticks him with a spear to make sure he's dead. The wind kicks up and sprays the blood across his face and LO AND BEHOLD! for some reason Longinus drops to his knees as if he just had an aneurysm. I'm sure he was supposed to have had some sort of epiphany, but I'll be damned if I know what about. By the way, the whole scene with the storm after Jesus dies is super-hokey.
I'm sure a lot of you think I'm just prejudiced agains Christianity, but no, that's not it. There have been many good movies about Christianity, for example Life of Brian and Jesus Christ Superstar....
Okok I'm kidding.
But still, I don't think I'm prejudiced, in fact I think I can see past the fact that this is basically just a hyped up movie for fans of Christianity (aka Christians). In fact, I would liken this movie to Hellboy. Both have a cast of characters not really introduced but very familiar to fans. Both have a story not built up in any way, but very familiar to fans. The difference is, Hellboy actually has a plot, while The Passion does not. The Passion uses one chapter in the story of Jesus Christ as an excuse to make the most disgusting movie ever made.
Seriously people, this movie is bloodier and more abhorrent then Reservoir Dogs or Natural Born Killers.

Alright, rant over.

So I'm going home for Úlla's wedding. For those of you who don't know, she's marrying her Spaniard, Manuel :) The whole family is coming from spain, sounds like funfunfun! I lengthened my stay one week so I could play at Menningarnótt at Kaffi Vín, like the last couple of years, and in a lucky turn of events, received an invitation from a friend to his wedding during that extended time.
Everybody's getting married and having kids! What's wrong with these people? :s

ANYway...going to sleep.

2004-07-03T11:42:00.000-04:00

It's happy-birthday-Manu-day!

2004-06-22T11:17:00.000-04:00

Well, like Frodo wrote, "There and Back Again" (or was it Bilbo?)
Iceland was very nice, even though I barely had enough free time to think, let alone spend with my family. Almost every minute of each of the 4 days I had was planned in advance.
It all started with Nice Auntie Freyja driving me to the airport because I had a flash of paranoia, envisioning myself waiting for some stupid bus to take me there and it not coming and me cursing and missing the airplane (This paranoia is from mamma, btw). The flight home was ok, although I hate flying. They showed Cactus Flower and The Candidate, both oldies. Cactus Flower has Goldie Hawn in it. Never seen her so young before. I finally understood why a whole generation of men fell for her. I had fallen for her within a minute of the movie :p.
Mamma picked me up at the airport, and drove us home, where some big teenager claiming in a voice deeper than my own to be Darri waited for us. He's doing the same thing I did around this age, skipping the whole "broken voice" thing. I stayed at home, chatting with m&p&d for a couple of hours, until I got picked up at around 2pm by the guys.
For those who didn't know, I came home ONLY to be at my good friend's Jón Grétar's wedding. So we were taking him into the country for a "bachelor" party. Mind you, not an "American bachelor" party, with strippers and bullshit. Nono, just a sort of formal "last time getting wasted with all the guys" party. One of the guys' family owns some land in the country along with a little rustic hotel. We stayed there for free. Basically, we just got drunk, grilled some meat, went swimming in one of Iceland's oldest swimming pools (Seljalands laug), and saved 2 swedish girls. They had stuck their car in some sand, and came up to the house, hoping to find some old farmer to help them out. Instead they got 6 strapping young Icelandic men, eager to please sweet Swedish girls. It was quite funny. We also took a little offroad trip on a tiny, square shaped, buggy, through some of the glacial rivers and a ways up the mountains behind. Very exhilarating. My forearms probably grew half an inch in diameter from gripping the buggy.
The day after that was spent mostly in recuperation and visiting people. Saturday was the day of the wedding. Our gift to Johnny was going to be a musical composition. We had decided this in January, when he asked us (after a bottle of cognac) to write the piece of music instead of giving them something physical. We loved the idea then. Now, 5 hours before the wedding, and no music in sight, we weren't quite as fond of it. BUT, since we are such musical geniuses, we met at 10 in the morning, Stefán Jón, Stulli and I, put our heads together, and came up with a piece of music which was actually quite nice. Silja, Stefáns significant other, actually contributed greatly to this as well. We managed to get a theme from Johnny's favorite Kiss song woven into our music, over a theme written by Silja which had a strong "Chariots of Fire" feel to it. It might not have been a masterpiece, but it dropped Johnny's jaw. So, he was happy which made us feel happy. Hey guys, maybe we should try to write some other stuff together, since we managed this in only 2 hours? :)
The wedding was nice, very short, good food, and then straight to another party while they enjoyed their wedding night. Went to a graduation party at my friend Finnur's house, where his parents were very diligent at keeping my glass full. Brought my trumpet along and attempted to play a little bit while a guitarist strummed some chords and Finnur pounded a conga. I met a bunch of people from my past, always fun.
The day after that, more recuperation, more visits, and then I left the day after that. Had my last meal at Old West with Svanur at lunch time.
All in all, I had fun, although travelling so much in such a short time is exhausting.
Right now, I'm just getting back into gear with the research. We just had a girl come in to help us out. She's cute...too bad she's 17 ;) She's from a high-school nearby, a top student who got a grant from her school to do whatever she wants this summer, and she chose AI at UMD, so she was sent to us.
Anyway, I'll be back home at the end of July, and will be staying for almost 4 weeks then, so plenty of time to meet people.

2004-06-12T21:47:00.000-04:00

I've managed to get this far in life without regretting anything, not one single decision I've ever made. Granted, many of my decisions resulted in things turning out differently than I had planned, and in possibly less desirable situations. However, through this all, I've managed to keep in mind that "past is past". Decisions have been made and what matters now is what happens in the future. Even through a painful breakup with a former girlfriend, I managed to keep to this idea, that thinking about the past, pining over a bad decision rather than trying to do something in the present, is bad for you and ultimately destructive. And then, sometimes one must realize there is nothing one can do, put that realization in the past, and apply the same idea; past is past.
I have reached a point where, yes, maybe there is something which I regret; something I had and then lost, until someone else found it. I just hope I can place it firmly in my past.

Elsku Gunnhildur, til hamingju með allt það góða sem hefur hent þig síðustu mánuði. Þú átt allt það besta í lífinu skilið. Ég vona að þú hafir fundið það sem þú vissir ekki að þú vildir.

In other news, I'll be going home for 5 days next wednesday, wheee! It'll be a tight schedule; land around 6am the morning of the 17th, sleep a bit, meet with the guys and go to a summerhouse somewhere in the middle of nowhere, get stinking drunk and come home the next day. Spend friday recuperating with the family. Wedding on the 19th, my good friend Jón Grétar is the groom. After that I figure the rest of us will go out and get drunk again. Spend sunday recuperting with the family. Then I leave for USA the next day, the afternoon of the 21st of june. I was going to not mention this on my blog until afterwards, people usually expect you to contact them if you're at home, so since my time is so limited, I figured I'd avoid it by not posting about it. Also, I was going to surprise some people with visits. But I decided against it. Anyway, if any of you guys at home would like to meet up with me, drop by for a visit or whatever, friday and sunday I'll be home and more than willing to entertain visitors, just expect me to be smelly and grumpy. Saturday evening I'll be going between a couple of parties, so you could always give me a call then, I'll be around. I will still have my old number 695-2476. And if I don't see you next week, I'll most likely meet you when I come back home in august for Úlla's wedding.

2004-06-10T06:03:00.000-04:00

It's Happy-Birthday-Darri-Day. Everybody say happy birthday to my little bro.
:)

2004-06-02T22:00:00.000-04:00

I am so fucking pissed.
This is the final straw. Tomorrow I start looking for apartments. I'm moving.
It all started this morning/afternoon. I woke up around 11, went online, did my usual stuff. Then decided to go get something to eat, remembered that I had loads of rice I had cooked the night before, maybe I'd make some fried rice. So I go into the kitchen and there is my rice, overturned in some other dirty pot.
The thing was, when I cooked the rice the night before, all the plastic containers had been full so I just put the pot in the fridge with the lid on it. The rice had burned a little, but since I couldn't empty it, I couldn't clean it. So this morning the pot was in the sink and my rice destroyed. I pounded on Binh's door and asked him to explain himself. He gets all upset and starts shouting things at me. Here's what I could make out:
"This is my pot"
"I tried to wake you this morning but couldn't"
"You know I use this pot everyday. I was quite angry this morning when I couldn't cook my food"
So I immediately told him that there are a lot of things in the kitchen which are mine and Dan's and we all use them without a fuss. Which made no dent in his argument. I told him we had never established any boundaries as to who was allowed to use what. Deaf ears. I was really angry at him for throwing away my food. You just don't do that. So I started shouting back at him. It all ended with me telling him to go fuck himself and slamming my door. Then he attacks my door with some wild spinning kick, gets me out again and tells me to wash his pot, which I did. No reason not to, I had burned the rice. After that, I went through the kitchen, pulled out everything I had brought with me, and moved it to my room. If the plastic containers had food in them...oops! too bad. Got a little vindictive there.
Immediately after that I sent my landlord a letter asking for a key to my room (never got one). I don't know what Binh is capable of and I don't want to find out. However, some part of me wants to just push him so he'll do something that could get him thrown out of the country.
I wish that were all.
Tonight Tos started to do bills. They went over phone bills, adsl and cable(TV). I immediately pointed out that I don't have a TV, and our community TV has been broken since January before I came back from my break. So I haven't used our cable AT ALL.
Then all hell broke loose.
Dan wouldn't even consider it. I offered to pay half, even though I felt I didn't owe a dime. No deal. And he thinks he is so in the right. One analogy I gave in my defense was "If I didn't have a computer, would you charge me for the ADSL?" And they said without a blink, Yes. What kind of a twisted way of thinking is this? Their rationale was that "it is available to you, you just don't use it". If the community TV were working, I'd be fine with that. But I don't even have a cable line into my room, let alone a TV. In my opinion, they are robbing me of $100.
Man am I furious.
So anyway, I'm searching for apartments starting tomorrow.

2004-05-24T01:05:00.000-04:00

Well, not much to say this time. I'm just in the "can't-or-won't-go-to-sleep" phase, so I figured...
Met up with the DnD group I found on the net, which was fun (although it was after an insomnic night, so I was a bit lethargic). Spent all day after that just lounging around, although I did do a tiny bit of writing.
Started playing Final Fantasy XI again, against my own common sense. Meh, I have time now, so it's not a big deal.
Toilet's still broke, research is still stuck, same old same old. I actually did cook some fried rice and it was pretty good. In fact the boiled rice by itself was surprisingly tasty. I followed a recipe where they said you were supposed to wash the rice first (to get the starch off or something?) and then I bring the water+rice to a quick boil and immediately lower heat and let it simmer for about 20 minutes. This way the rice was sticky and chunky, and tasty (I always remember rice tasting like paper, except when it was spiced of course). I put a whole bunch of stuff into the fried rice, but still didn't manage to get it to be tasty. I guess next time I'll try to put the garlic in first, get the taste into the oil, and then the rice+onions, and then the veggies. Last time I just threw it all in at once. I even put soysauce and got the rice to be lightbrown in color, but the taste just seemed to vanish. Maybe I'll try putting half a bullion into the oil or something
Meh, what a pathetic blog (pathetiblog, patheblogic), don't have much to say.
Maybe I should become like a behavioral anthropologist. Since I'm always looking at people and how they behave, and I still can't understand most peoples subtle signs...sometimes not even the blatant ones :)
I have been doing a lot of thinking on how people act and why they do what they do, especially since I've been watching a lot of tv shows, where narrative and storytelling play a lead role. Now I know one shouldn't attempt to base reality on a fantasy...HOWEVER, I realized that the most popular of these shows have a direct effect on popular culture and also on how young minds think. The example formost in my mind is the show Sex and the City.
DISCLAIMER: For my male friends, I tell them I watch this show because a) it's got a lot of cute girls in it, and b) it (supposedly) gives me insight into the female psyche.
I had lots of fun watching this show to begin with, and then when my ocd hooks were firmly in place and I HAD to finish watching it, the show started to get ugly. The main characters are all supposed to be liberal, free women, dating whom they choose and bladebla. In reality, they are just bitches hung up on every clichéd thing a woman is "supposed" to be hung up on. And I realized, all the young girls who idolize these characters are going to grow up to be them. And that just made me almost sick to my stomach. One great example:
The main character, Carrie, moves in with a guy, and they break up, and because of complications, she loses the apartment. It was rent-controlled so she needs to get a loan to afford another apartment. Turns out that she, being a 35 year old, has something like $800 in savings. She goes wahwah and whines on her friends' shoulders, and realizes that she has spent over $40,000 on shoes alone in the past 10 years. Enter crisis as she realizes she has to change her lifestyle to live. Then she magically gets a better job and is able to continue her lifestyle. And back to the shoes and no saving.
I totally respect a show's right to do whatever they want, and I'm not saying it's their fault or a bad show or anything. I'm just saying, what does this tell young girls? I mean, comon...$40,000 in shoes? And it's not just stuff like this, it's everything. The show only serves to perpetuate half-myths and stupid cultural rituals which only complicate things in relationships. And this show would actually affect young boys just as badly. The women are painted as saints, when, after just a cursory glance under the surface, you realize they are just simpering bitches, little princesses that whine when they don't get what they want. And Carrie ends up with the womanizer, rich, cool guy who broke her heart, while herself breaking the heart of the really nice guy who loved her from day one.
So it's true what they say guys. If you want the girl, you gotta be the jerk. Or at least it will definitely be true now, after millions of women in the world have watched this show and identified with it. At least according to articles I read, this show has "become an icon for women in a man's world" bladeblablingblingblah.
I think the whole way of thinking/living which is portrayed in this show is almost sick. But because the show is actually well done, I even found myself believing some of the hogwash, if only for a moment. If it can affect me, I can only wonder how much it affected younger and more easily influenced minds.
The other thing that annoyed me was the depiction of gay people. Now I don't pretend to know much about that, but I do know that not all gay guys have an impeccable fashion sense or speak with a stupid half-lisp and exuberant gesticulation. Nor do they all dress in assless leather pants and take off their shirt wherever they go out partying.
Ah well, anyway...just ranting. Guess I'll get to sleep before I get incoherent.

p.s. just for extra clarification. I am NOT under the mistaken assumption that this show, or any other show for that matter, is a reflection of reality. I am afraid that reality might come to reflect this show due to its popularity.

2004-05-20T19:06:00.000-04:00

Wheeee, finished my finals.
Got a B in NLP, and still haven't gotten my grade in the Graphics course....Ah well, I'll get all A's next semester :p.
Spent all day yesterday just lounging around (like normal :)), reading and enjoying being done. Buuut, I'm not really done because I'm gonna be doing research all summer.
...
Went to that tennis class today. That was a lot of fun, just what I needed. Just me and this coach (cost me $55 but it was worth it) He sort of just had me hit ball after ball, first slow and short, then from the baseline, then some volleys and lobs, and finally some serves. After 45 minutes, I was totally beat and had a blister on my right thumb. The grip on my racquet, after having been unused for 10 years, had obviously started to rot, because it left my hand completely black. Got a new grip and decided to sign up for a membership at the club, only $25 a month. They also have a weight room and although there is a free one on campus, something tells me I'll use this one more. There's something about having to pay for stuff...you usually make sure you make use of it. Free stuff...meh, you didn't pay, so what's the loss if you don't go, right?
Signed myself up for a list where they try to pair off people with similar skill to play practice matches, now I just have to wait for a call. In the meantime, I'll probably drop by there a couple of times to use their practice wall, and maybe to practice serving on the court. If I keep this up, I should be in shape in no time.
I asked Oliver (the coach) where he would place me, and he advised me to drop in on one of the intermediate adult courses. So I'm gonna check that out. Also asked him about getting full time professional training, possibly in the future....
It costs $12,000 a year
O_o
When I'm rich, I'll train tennis full-time.
I'm also gonna go and meet with a racquetball group on campus. They meet once a week and also have a sort of "league" where you can arrange games.
Alrighty, next thing on the agenda...get to cooking some healthier food. I bought a 20lb bag of rice and it's sitting on my bedroom floor staring at me. I think it's giving me bad dreams. Got a bunch of veggies, and I figure I'll make myself the fried rice expert. Seems that fried rice, with some bits of maybe chicken or shrimp, and a bunch of veggies, is tasty, cheap, easy to make, and good for you (as long as the fry part doesn't entail too much grease)
Looking forward to getting back home this summer. Hey! How many of you gringos are coming to the wedding?

2004-05-15T13:23:00.000-04:00

I've done a bunch of stuff this week.
I contacted Chris Gekker about a trumpet class, still haven't heard back from him though...gotta send him another email. I dropped by the College Park Tennis Center, checked out the summer schedule. It's actually quite expensive to take part in the classes there. $215 for 7 weeks, once a week. And if I want to come more often than once, I need to just pay multiples of $215. So three times a week for 7 weeks = $645.
O_o
Don't know about that. But I did sign up for a single class with a trainer, to have him sort of evaluate me and get me going again, been 10 years since I played tennis last. After that, I'll probably try to find a partner, someone who's interested in playing regularly.
Dropped by at a comp sci picnic on thursday, had some interesting discussions about language and movies. When it was over, the guys who had arranged it had loads of food left over, and they wanted someone to take it. Nobody offered, so I took it. Now I have a freezer full of hamburgers and sausages (20/50). Not that I'll ever eat the sausages (they're quite disgusting), but I was thinking about taking the burgers and chopping them up and making some spaghetti sauce or something.
Professor Varshney (comp graphics) showed off my piano project (and a couple of other projects) in class on tuesday. He said that all the projects were great, the lowest got a 13/15 score. But that there were a handful of projects that "impressed the hell out of the professor", and mine was one of them, yay! So lugging the comp to school, having to buy a new seat for my bike (which cost $85!) and lugging the comp back, was all worth it. Now I just have to hope I get a decent grade on my NLP project. I turned in a quite subpar project, having spent most of the weekend watching movies and moping around. But, Nizar (the TA in NLP) was at the picnic and he gave me a ride home, and we had a really interesting chat about worlds and languages and stuff (he's palestinian). So maybe that'll help my grade a bit :p
Speaking about weekends and moping. I should be studying for my finals on monday and wednesday, but I'm not. I'm procrastinating (procrastinate, pro-crastinate, (pro)crastinence, crastain?)
I found a roleplay group in the neighborhood online. They had recently lost a member and were looking for a new one. Perfect timing. So I dropped by the DM's house, where he was at home in the middle of the day, with an 8 month old baby girl, while the mother (career woman) was out working. And we chatted about the world he had created and he basically welcomed me into their group. They use the whole loft as a gaming area, with a huge marble table always covered with gaming stuff. Very cool, something I'd like to do once I have my own place. So I just have to make my character, and then begin to play with them next weekend. They play every saturday from 2-8pm. A regularly playing roleplay group, something I always thought was an oxymoron.
Aaaanywayy
Just hanging in there, not reading as much as I was. In fact, haven't really done much of anything since monday when I turned in my NLP project. Oh well, I guess I'll just try to get through my finals with as little trouble as possible(they also double as two of my four MS comps, so they are a little important) and take it from there. My research is still at a standstill due to techincal difficulties, which I have a number of people helping me out on.
So stay tuned...

2004-05-13T22:04:00.000-04:00

My friend Berglind just told me she's having a baby.
I was going to try to explain how I feel about this, but I'm totally at a loss. All I want to do is to hug and squeeze her. Berglind has been one of my closest friends for 10 years now, and I love her dearly. There's just something wonderful about seeing one's friends so happy. I have had a number of friends recently have babies, some closer friends than others, but there I've always been more of a friend to the guy. When the friend is the girl, it's totally different, for some reason. Can't quite explain it.
Til hamingju elsku Berglind mín, þú átt eftir að vera æðisleg mamma.
I can't wait to get to know all these little people sprouting up around me. If they're anything like their parents, we'll get along famously.
The only thing that makes me sad is that I can't be around. Three of my friends have now had babies and in each case, I've been out here, feeling happy for them, but again, feeling sad because I can't take part in the happiness physically. In reality it's a totally selfish feeling, but I can't help it. Berglind is due beginning of december, so I'll be able to visit her newborn when I come home for christmas.

2004-05-09T21:32:00.000-04:00

I need a purpose.
That's what I seem to be getting down to these days. I need something to focus all my energies on. I have a plethora of things I could focus on, but don't see myself doing so.
School
Music
Writing
Reading
Programming
Working out
Meditating/thinking
I want to be able to focus on all of these things at once, but for some reason, I can't. My problem is that I have been (or know I could be) succesful in all of these things. I can just hear people going "What's he complaining about?". But I envy people who have one thing they're good at. Because those people don't have to choose, it's been chosen for them. And they know that this is it, so they are able to focus all they've got on it. (Boy do I sound conceited :( )
This is similar to when I'm shopping. I hate having all these choices, but I used to be the type that would pine over everything, trying to find the best whatever I was buying at the moment. Now, I just want something, don't care if it's the best or not. Same with my choices in life, I just want something, one thing, don't care what it is, just something that I can take and "do" and be a specialist at. The only problem is, I'm not at that place in my mind yet. I still want to do everything. Everything at once, and I want to be the best at everything too. I have a feeling that this kind of thinking has a tendency to lean towards the self-destructive side...
I recently read an article about the danger of having too many choices. It was directed at the consumer world, but I think it applies also to other types of choices. This article speculated that the sudden burst of choice in consumer related products is causing millions of Americans to fall deeper into depression. The idea was that, if you are the type to really look everything over, and then choose what you think is the best choice, if and when it turns out to be not the best choice, you become sad, or frustrated with yourself. If, however, you only had one choice, you can become frustrated with the supplier, which is much more healthy. The other type of person, the one which just buys whatever, has it much easier because they don't expect their consumer products to be the best, so when it turns out to be just on par, and not exceptional, they are blasé about it.
Come to think of it, that sounds like that "expect the worst" type of thinking...which I always thought I didn't agree with....
Anyway, of all the things I can think of that would be a possible "purpose", none seem to be "worthy". It's easy to dismiss this feeling as "oh well, this is just a step up to whatever purpose shows itself further down the road." Well that's all fine and dandy, but it doesn't ease my unease.
There are a couple of things I have thought of that would be "worthy" goals.
1. Spending decades getting rich, creating a foundation and then using that money to do good things, like charity or building hospitals or stuff like that.
2. Really dedicating myself to perfecting mind/body, for example just going away somewhere, becoming a monk or something (seriously, I find this idea charming in some way)
3. Family, children. This is something that pabbi mentioned a while back, that I might be just like him in this sense, and I totally agree. The only problem is, what happens when the children grow up, and the purpose becomes less dominating? This is why (at this point) I view the first two options as a "main goal" while the third would be a "main goal" for some twenty odd years at some point in my life.
Anyway, as always, too much energy going into thinking, and not enough going into actual corporeal things, like school and cooking dinner. Some real world news...Binh surprised me by telling me my haircut looked good. Maybe he's just a really strange guy rather than a bastard. Our toilet is broken, doesn't fill up, so we need to fill it by hand until it gets fixed. So Dan pees off the porch into the yard. ... And I had to leave my bike at school while I was bringing my comp back, and it was so late that I decided to leave it on campus overnight. Big mistake. Somebody stole my seat and the pump and drink carriage thingy. They obviously had tools, because that stuff was bolted down. What I don't understand though, is why they didn't take my front wheel? It has a quick release and everything. Oh well, going to buy new stuff tomorrow. I can still ride it, as long as I remember not to sit down....that would hurt.

2004-05-08T01:20:00.000-04:00

Had a nice day.
Started out with waking up at 6 in order to get a ride from Dan to school. I had to get my desktop computer in to be able to demo my graphics program for my professor. I had tried to avoid having to lug the comp up there, but UNIX world be damned, they only have a handful of win comps at school, and none of them had midi capability. Ergo, the lugging. Anyway, I walked back home, deciding to try to stay awake until 1pm, for the trumpet class. I hadn't slept that much the night before, still recovering from the insomnia. So I sat out on the porch, in the sweltering heat, and read Driven to Distraction. Well, poetically, I only managed to read that for about an hour, before I needed to get up and do something else. So I picked up one of those paddles with the ball stuck on an elastic string and started to play with it. An hour later I stood up, quite a bit better with the ball, and quite a bit shocked at how much time had passed without me noticing it.
...
Went to the trumpet class at 1. This was very interesting. Soren (the girl who brought me there) played the Kent kennan sonata (which I played for my 8th stig test 5 years ago) and Chris Gekker went through it with her, master-class style, for the first 20 minutes. After that, he had us listen to some piccolo trumpet, and spoke a bit about styles of piccolo playing. Finally he had a little lecture about Carmine Caruso and his method. This was all fascinating to me, and at the same time, made me quite sad that this kind of thing was never done at Tónó. This was such a great feeling, about 15 trumpet students together in a small lecture hall, Chris playing and talking and joking, and the students joking back. I learned quite a lot during that hour. More than I had expected.
I went and talked to him afterwards, although he was in a hurry. (Yes he remembers Kirk, and he says "Hi Kirk". By the way, from a first impression...this guy has all the same mannerisms I've seen in Kirk...he even looks a little like him :D ) Yes, it was fine that I sit in on these meetings, and can continue to do so while I'm at UMD. And yes, he does teach private lessons. $50 a pop. So I'm gonna get myself into a little better shape, and then maybe try to get into a routine with him, possibly take 1-2 lessons from him a month
The award ceremony was a joke, typical computer geek style. Just a couple of guys reading from a paper "and the NEXT award goes to" joke joke. One guy managed to destroy a microphone and a keyboard with one swift movement. It was all quite hilarious.
I finally got to showing my project around 5pm. I had to set up my own comp, so prof Varshney brought us to his computer graphics lab and we set up there. So I not only showed my project to him, but also to all his grad students. Which, needless to say, put some added pressure on me. Varshney was very quiet while listening to it the first time through, until he finally said. "This is very cool. Hey guys, you should see this." And a full-blown, theoretical discussion about inverse kinematics and it's application to music ensued with me at the (slightly off-)center. I was surprised at the effect the program had, I felt it was something I could have done much better (which means, I really didn't spend that much time on it) Buuut, I guess that's just the way I think.
When I brought my comp home, I figured I'd just use the chance to take it downstairs and hook it up to Tos' comp and get some of the movies he'd downloaded. I got almost 40 movies from him.
21 Grams
A Time to Kill
Along Came Polly
Big Fish
Blow
Boat Trip
Confidence
Dawn of the Dead
Embrace of the Vampire
Final Destination 2
Hackers
Harvard Man
Honey
How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
Intolerable Cruelty
Man on Fire
My Boss's Daughter
Mystic River
Out of Time
Peter Pan
Reservoir Dogs
Runaway Jury
Swat
School of Rock
Starship Troopers 2
The Butterfly Effect
The Dreamers
The Hot Chick
The Hunted
The Last Samurai
The Missing
The Pianist
The Punisher
The Alamo
The Passion of Christ
Torque
True Romance
Under the Tuscan Sun
If any of you guys would like me to write some of these movies on to DVDs I can do so. Right now, this takes up about 50GB of my new drive so it's not too much of a sink on my resources. But as I watch them, one by one, I might want to start to remove them. And not all of them might be worth owning, for me. So let me know, and I'll see what I can do.
Of these, I have watched The Punisher, The Last Samurai, and School of Rock, and each one of those came as a pleasant surprise. I expected comix trash, presumptuous trash, and just plain trash respectively, but got instead, a refreshing action flick, a truly epic, powerful drama, and a hilarious, feelgood, music movie. M&P, you guys should especially see school of rock, you'll love it.

2004-05-06T03:40:00.000-04:00

I get the kind of insomnia that leaves me wide awake.
Not like some of my friends who get the kind of debilitating insomnia, where you are sooo tired you just can't fall asleep. Usually what happens with me is I have something on my mind. And when I lie down for bed, even though I am tired and need sleep, my mind goes into massive overtime and starts thinking, planning, playing out scenarios, jumping from one thing to the next. When I get to this point, it is absolutely impossible for me to get to sleep. And this is when having 40,000+ minutes of media to watch comes in handy.
Although, when faced with such a huge selection, actually choosing what to watch might be enough to make me sleepy again.
I'm becoming more and more convinced that I have Adult ADD. I feel constantly that things are sort of....swimming...especially when I'm reading. I never felt like that before(and I swear), but then again...in the old days, I would read books voraciously, but almost always with intense concentration. For example, I read a 700 page novel in 7 hours. With not a single break. Not even to look up. They say that is another hallmark of ADD. In any case, I would love to be able to organize my thoughts, and to focus on one thing for a while, instead of constantly having 20 things in my head at once. Don't get me wrong, it's fun to have so many things going on at once. In reality, I never get bored. I just get overwhelmed. The only thing I can say I have ever completed, of all the things I have done outside of school, is my short story.
Boy that's a depressing thought.
I have so many projects running at once, so many things I am really interested in and want to apply myself to, that just thinking about deciding what to spend my free time on at any given moment, is daunting enough to be almost paralyzing. And so I procrastinate.
That's kind of sick isn't it? To procrastinate on one's own free time? Instead of working on one of those things, I do my net round, or I check the status of my downloads, or I blog, or I watch an episode or two of whichever show I'm following at the moment, or I clean my room, anything other than making a decision. Maybe I'm seeing a holy grail where there is none, but wouldn't it be nice if ritalin would help me focus? I've often thought of what I could accomplish if I were just able to focus all my energy on some one thing.
While I was doing music, I probably came the closest to that. I estimate that at my peak I was spending about 50% of my energy on music, while the rest was split evenly between normal school and having fun. At the same time, the other kids at the music school were basically living there. I was spending at the absolute most 1.5 hours practicing a day. The other kids practiced 4 - 8 hours a day. I envied their dedication. Right now, the majority of my energy is spent on thinking and in general being existential. Over the last couple of weeks, I would estimate only about 20% of my energy has been spent working on school related stuff.
So anyway, I'm going to finish reading both the depression book, and the ADD book, and then get my health insurance papers together and in order and figure out if I can somehow get an ADD evaluation for free :)
Oh, by the way. For those of you guys who have downloaded my piano program thingy and the sound doesn't work...do the following:
1. Go to Start|Settings|Control Panel|Sounds & Multimedia
2. Go to the audio tab
3. Change to MIDI settings to something other than they are at now and try the piano program again
4. If this doesn't work, repeat 1-3, trying a different setting each time.
5. If that doesn't work then throw away your computer. It's a piece of shit.

And for you guys who haven't downloaded it...What's your problem? :D Go ahead and get it. It's only 300K(I wrote roo the first time instead of 300...funny how one's mind works) and should only take a minute.

Going on friday to this trumpet group class with Chris Gekker. The trumpet girl in UMRO invited me. Then after that there is some sort of thingy in the CS department, where I get recognition for the fellowship I received this year. So that should be a fun day.
Oh well, now I'm even more awake than I was (and I can't stop writing this blog....bloggybloggy bloggittysmog dogloghoggyschlog.... o_O)
Can anybody figure out what this is a picture of?
[>^_^]> ([~]`[~])
Oh yeah, and I shaved my head. Not skinhead type, but like, about one cm short. It was just so hot here, it itched, it was too long, and a haircut costs $15. This cost me 5 minutes of battery time. Plus it was fun :)

2004-05-05T01:01:00.000-04:00

Just to continue my analysis of Dan and friends.
I've noticed over these past months, that Dan's (and Tos') humor is...hmmm..don't know quite how to put it. Basically, 90% of their humor is about sex (usually gay), and the rest of their humor is like a competition in taking shots at each other. The competitive humor I have witnessed back home (most notably between Tóti and Ingó. However, Dan and Tos are better at it then they were). It's their sexual humor that I find...interesting.
There's nothing wrong with using sex as humor. I'm sure everybody has done it to some degree at some point. But when it gets to the level these guys are at...it becomes a bit twisted.
The way this works here is, you say something a bit shocking, but you have to sort of meld it into your natural way of speaking so it doesn't sound like you're saying something shocking, although the only reason you're saying it this way is to try to shock the other person. And then of course, the other person must not miss a step, if he does he shows that he is shocked and becomes the point of ridicule. Let me try to give you an example (and still keep it non-r rated :p)
Dan is limping across the den. I ask what's wrong.
Dan: "Dude, I went out on this date last night, and this girl had me going all night."
Tos: "Wait, was that before or after I took you like the bitch that you are?" (insert gratuitous, graphic, sexual vocabulary at will)
Dan and Tos: [laughing] "good one"
Another example, this one non-vocal. Dan comes out of the bathroom wearing only boxers, and I ask him something. He answers while walking into his room and pulling off his shorts and leaning over.
All this stuff strikes me as infantile. If I allow myself to generalize here, it's almost as if "Americans" got fed up at some point with being thought of as less liberal than "Europeans" and decided to become liberal in a jiffy by acting as if talking about explicit, graphic sexual acts, and walking around nude were normal things. The difference being that the "Americans" are doing it either to shock people or to make a point while the "Europeans" act this way naturally. And because of this, the "Americans" have gone overboard in the shock process, and of course keep going further.
The other thing that is fascinating is that these people seem to have a quite quick wit, and a good vocabulary. Now, I'm not able to take part in such verbal banter in english yet, I don't have that much control over the language. I can do it...but not at their pace. Whether that makes them intelligent is highly debatable. It does make them proficient at putting other people down though.
This doesn't bug me that much, it's almost hilarious. I mean when Dan talks about "his balls" in the same tone of voice one would talk about "his car", it makes me want to crack up. Not for the reason Dan might think this is clever, but for the absurdity of Dan and his type acting in this manner and thinking that it makes them clever and liberal.
In other news, I joined a community synphonic wind orchestra today(glorified lúðrasveit). Went to my first rehearsal. It was fun, nice people, not too difficult music. There's something totally different about being in an amateur band, there is no competition. People are just there to play and they really couldn't care less what they play. I was placed straight away on first trumpet. Some guy asked me what I'd been doing. I said I played principal in the UMRO, and he went "Oh. You'd best play first here then." I was fine with that. Although I did tell the conductor that I would be willing to play any voice, if he felt he needed some support at the bottom, for example. Too often, the best players group up on the first and sometimes second parts, leaving the lower parts for the less proficient. This is not so great, because often the deep parts are more difficult to get in tune than the higher parts, so having a strong player there is usually a good idea.
Either way, I'm slowly but surely getting back into the music world.

2004-05-03T16:01:00.000-04:00

It's happy-birthday-pabbi day :)

2004-05-02T22:36:00.000-04:00

Just thought I'd update you on my completely obsessive downloading.
I have now downloaded over 40,000 minutes of anime.
That amounts to ca 30 days of watching anime, with no break to eat sleep or poop. So I guess I'm set for quite a while. Not that this means I'm gonna stop downloading. Nahh..
Oh yeah, and of course in addition to this I've also been downloading other tv shows, like Alias, ER, 24, Friends, Scrubs, Smallville, Sopranos, Coupling, Blackadder, Angel, Carnivale, and the occasional movie or so. With all that I probably break the 50,000 mark.
Will I ever watch all that anime? Who knows. Right now I'm just letting the collector in me go wild. It's not often you get to take on a collection so extensive as this one without using a huge amount of money :D

2004-05-02T15:48:00.000-04:00

Who'd've thought writing a stemmer for Icelandic would be so difficult?
I mean, I knew Icelandic was a difficult language, but I figured I was getting off easy, doing a project on my own language. But no...what's with all the sound changing and rule exceptions in this language? Geez...
For those of you who don't know, a stemmer is a program which takes a word as an input and outputs the stem of the word based on a certain algorithm. For example, in the english stemmer 'abduction' is stemmed to 'abduct', and 'conflation' to 'conflate'.
Oh well, I'll just have to work on it.
In other news...two girls I know quite well are pregnant, but I'm not allowed to tell who they are!
More on that once I get permission...

2004-05-02T12:33:00.000-04:00

Went to a party at Freyja's yesterday during the day. She had her T'ai Chi friends over and also us other people, like me, Þóra, Christine and Christopher, Fred and Helen...It was nice. Good food, a nice selection of beer, and interesting conversation. Got into a long one with some guy I didn't know (Paul maybe?) about Japan and the language and culture.
I had ridden my bike there, using the metro on the way, which was not altogether an unpleasant experience, although a bit tiring. Anyway, Freyja sent me home with a chunk of ham, some biscuits and an unopened bottle of red wine. Thanks Freyja mín :) Us cheapo grad students will never say no to free food, let alone wine.
Christopher got into a long discussion with some of the T'ai Chi people about energy and synchronicity and such. It was an interesting discussion to follow, and I had to steel myself not to join in. Christopher was being very polite and interested about something he obviously was quite sceptical about. I wouldn't have been as polite. Not on purpose, mind you. Just that when I get into such discussions, I want to get down to the nitty gritty of things, and I don't like stopping at some point because somebody gets offeneded. In fact, I usually don't even notice that they get offended :p
Go back here around 8pm, was gonna do some work but didn't. I was totally exhausted after the bike riding, but still not sleepy. So I watched two new episodes of 24.
Now, I think of myself as a rather jaded person when it comes to cinematic violence and such. However, as I was saying to pabbi the other day, it's not so much the blood and gore that bothers me, it's the actual ideas behind it. Somehow, I guess I see myself in the situation the protagonist is in, and I just get horrified. It doesn't always happen. Like when you're watching an action movie, like Die Hard, you can't really put yourself in the position, because it's just so far from your reality. But when things happen to the Joe Blow...it's much more striking for me. For example, the things that make me feel awful in movies are those little scenes...the ones that just flit by, where passerby get shot indiscriminantly.
So there was one scene in one of the 24 episodes I just thought was horrible. Actually it was more the whole theme of the episode. I'm not going to tell you what it was, at least no here. I don't want to spoil it for the rest of you.
Then I went and spoke with Dan and Tos about the scene and they were all like "Yeah! Wasn't that awesome?"
Hmmm...I'm still not quite sure what to make of all this.
Either way, 24 gets respect from me for being able to write and execute such a powerful episode.

2004-04-29T22:06:00.000-04:00

Got a whole lot done today, and yet at the same time, almost nothing.
Started out with going to the gym at 8am(!), but forgot my lock. I tied up my bike with the chains they provide, to make it look like it was locked, but I couldn't concentrate on my workout, so I just did some crunches, and some stretching and went home.
So far I hadn't decided on a project for the NLP class yet, and the deadline is looming up, so I sent a semi-desperate email to the assisant prof for the course, and he invited me to sit in on a couple of meetings with other students in the class, to hear what they were doing, and possibly join one of the groups. That took over 3 hours, mainly due to one chinese girl.
Geez, talk about stubborn, stuck in her ways, whatever you wanna call it.
She's doing a project on seperating chinese words (because chinese is written in a stream of symbols, there is no explicit separator). Two other guys (indian) were looking for a project, and Nizar (the assistant prof) figured it would be best if the two of them worked with the chinese girl (Ping(reply from 193.4.96.21...MUHAHAHA!)). The part he wanted them to work on was training a voice recognizer called Yamcha (also known as Yamcha the Worthless, The Single Most Pointless Character Ever Created, and Loser) which stands for Yet Another something CHunk Annotater. Anyway, then Nizar realizes that they should work together, because the two of them really need some chinese knowledge to do their work.
Ping: No
Nizar goes on to point out why she should actually work on the project he proposed to the other guys, based on her knowledge of chinese, and the fact that EVERY SINGLE chinese NLP researcher has done the thing she is about to do. And he points out that she should let the guys do it instead, because that part doesn't need as intimate knowledge of chinese.
Ping: No
And Nizar keeps pushing, with better and better logic, which I don't remember. And Ping keeps replying (:p), NO. On top of that she has no UNIX knowledge and wastes Nizar's (and our) time asking him stuff that she could figure out herself. Hell, this was stuff I figured out myself, and I didn't know any UNIX when I came.
Finally I spoke to Nizar, and we decided I would do a stemmer for Icelandic. Basically, write a program that should be able to take any Icelandic word and stem it to the correct root. Shouldn't be that difficult.
After this I went immediately to the Music Dpt.
I went to the main desk and got the names of the head honchos and went to their offices one by one. Just to sort of say hi, this is me, I play trumpet. Sort of let everybody know I'm around, get some exposure. Going again tomorrow to try to meet two guys who weren't there today. I got very positive responses, and left my email here and there. Now I just have to hope they weren't false positives, and threw away my email as soon as I left.
I also went to talk to a head piano honcho named Cleveland.
The thing is, after getting my piano program running, I started thinking. How cool would it be to have real(3D) hands playing the piano? And since I was using basic inverse kinematics with the balls anyway, I might as well look into it. Went and spoke to the graphics professor and he thought it was very interesting but wasn't very much help. So I talked to Cleveland, and pitched the idea to him. Basically, what I wanted from him was a contact within the piano world at UMD, someone I could talk to about the idea, flesh it out, and possibly sit down with and physically map the possible movements a player would do while playing a piano, and hopefully categorize them. This has got me all interested, and is so far just a side project. However, I could easily see this turn into a full blown dissertation topic. Who knows? Maybe I'll take a u-turn and end up with a phd in inverse kinematics and graphics. Actually, inverse kinematics isn't that far from AI, since it originated in robotics and migrated from there to graphics. And there is one student in my lab who is working on something called distal models. Not gonna explain that, suffice to say it's related to inverse kinematics.
Anyway, I envisioned having hands play a piece of piano music, using believable movements and fingering, as a possible aid to teaching. Imagine sitting at home and being able to take a piece of music you've never looked at before, feed it into your program, and be able to watch it being played, slow it down, pause it, rewind it, and then finally...emulate it. Learn by example, right?
We'll see what happens.
Oh yeah, and by the way...that extra phone line I was gonna get dsl on? Can't handle dsl. So I'm stuck with Binh the kicker and Dan the unlimited uploader.... :'(

2004-04-29T04:37:00.000-04:00

Ok...so my last post was a little...out there. Well that's me folks...way out there. But yeah, Freyja and Tótla are of course right, I just need to get....well, out there :)
Easier said than done, of course.
I'm still battling with my sleep cycle, and am beginning to think it might be and endless war. But I'm gonna keep at it, because I think if I can get my sleep regulated, my diet regulated, and a regular exercise schedule, I can become a regular boy!
Er....
Anyway, I've gotten pretty far with my computer graphics program, far enough to feel like I can share it with all you guys. It's pretty cool, though I do say so myself :D Basically it's a 3D rendering of a piano. And then there are balls. And the balls play the piano. You kinda have to see it.
There's a link to it on my stuff page (see link here to the left). For those of you not-so-teck-savvy, the link is to a zip file. Save the zip file somewhere on your comp, preferably in a new empty directory. Then just right click on the zip file and choose "extract to here". After that, just double click on the file "piano.exe". To have the piano play its music, push 'p' (for play). You can pause at any time by pressing 'p' again, and unpause by pressing, you gessed it...'p'. Also if you want to stop and begin again from the beginning, press 's' for stop, and then 'p' for play.
In the zip file is a file called piano.ini. There you can set some parameters which can be fun to play with.
The first number is the amount of balls per track. It is set to default 2 and the default music file (test.txt) that is in the zip file has 4 tracks (it's a Bach chorale). The second number is the tempo. This is set to default 2.0, and a smaller number means a faster tempo, so 1.0 is twice as fast as 2.0 and 4.0 is twice as slow. The third number is the transposition of the music in semitones. It's set to 0 for no transposition by default. So you could set it to 12 to transpose up an octave, or to -4 to transpose down a major third. Play around with these numbers, but watch out, they do have limits. The maximum number of balls is set to 200 but I haven't actually tested that...might not work. The tempo is effectively limitless, but setting it to 0 will make the program do nothing. The transposition will cause the program to crash if it makes the piece of music go outside the bounds of a grand piano.
I will most likely add a feature allowing the user to choose a piece of music from an 'open file' dialog, but haven't got around to it yet.
Enjoy!

2004-04-27T00:51:00.000-04:00

Just watched Grave of the Fireflies.
A number of people have told me that I should watch out for this movie, that it is so sad, it borders on heart-rending. And I agree, it is a sad movie. It's about two children, an older brother and his little sister, during the end of WWII in Japan. 'Nuff said. For some reason or another, this movie didn't touch me the way others have. I didn't shed a tear, despite the horrible things happening. But after finishing the movie...the only thing I wanted to do was to go home.
Just go home.
All of a sudden everything here seemed so pointless and absurd. The fact that I have to think about what I'm going to eat for dinner, and make sure I eat enough during the day. And then I worry at the end of the day, "did I eat healthy enough today?". Going to school, doing some stupid projects for some profs, stuff that is easy for me, but time consuming because accessing information about certain things on the internet can be incredibly difficult. I had to track down and buy a book on MIDI for example, just to get some source code and some understanding about how MIDI works so I could program it. That information is just not available in a comprehensive format on the internet, or if it is, it is outside the grasp of sane use of google. Worrying about pesky roommates, worrying about money, worrying about my bumba, thinking about learning a new language or a new instrument, writing my stories....all I wanted to do was to go home and hug my mamma and pabbi.
So I guess that movie did leave something behind.
Heh...
But seriously, not to sound all clichéd-out and existential, but what's the point? Why am I doing what I'm doing, when almost everybody I love and care about is half a world away? Because I want an interesting job? Because I want to broaden my horizons? Because I can? I don't want a job at all, I want to be independantly wealthy. I can broaden my horizons at home. There isn't anything within the realm of humanly possible that I don't think I could do, given the time and resources. I have no need of proving to myself or others that I can. Knowing that I can is enough for me. Maybe I'm here because 'it's the thing to do', or because 'I got a free ride and it would be a sin to waste it'. Maybe I'm here because this was sort of just the next stop on the ride, and I decided to get out for a breather. Reminds me of easter weekend. Courtney asked me whether I wasn't annoyed at my aunts whisking me from place to place. In fact, I find that comfortable in a way. As long as there's no place else I have to be, I like placing my life temporarily in another person's hands. If I have a day off, and nothing planned, and somebody just shows up and says "Hey come with me, I've got some ideas, we'll have fun." I'll jump at the opportunity. And I'm easy to please. I'd be just as happy spending a whole day reading in silence with a good friend as going to a barbecue with a whole group of acquaintances. Probably happier.
But I've realized something. What it all boils down to.
Having someone who will listen to whatever you want to tell them.
When I come home, I want to be able to tell someone all the little and unimportant things that happened to me today. I need someone to listen to that and be interested, laugh with me, be shocked with me...share in my experiences, second-hand though they may be. So many times, I have seen things here, things that are unimportant, a shape of a cloud, a smell, a stupid little animal doing a stupid thing. But the more I see, and the less I get to share, the worse I feel. So what do I do? I blog. I bombard people on msn with stupid comments. Especially Svanur. And they all have my gratitude for giving me a few moments of their time to chat. But words on a screen are nothing compared to a shared laugh, or a moment of commisseration.
Hooboy! How's that for semi-coherent rambling?
And yet, I can't really explain what's going on in my head (must be just my head, although it feels like my whole body). I need to be able to upload my mind onto my blog, so you guys could download it and understand me.
Bleh...I'm getting tired, and if I continue writing I'll get even less coherent.
Night.

2004-04-24T17:04:00.000-04:00

Úffff!
Just spent 3 hours helping Úlla trying to get the stupid webcam set up, through no fault of our own, I might add. I tried it first here with my comp and had it set up and on the web through an http server in no time. And 90% of the setup with Úlla went smoothly, even though we were doing it through msn. Then when it came to the point of opening access to the single port needed for other people to be able to see the broadcasted webcam, all hell broke loose.
Opening a port on my router is no problem, just log onto the web interface for the router and set it. Úlla's router didn't have a web interface. We spent about an hour trying to figure out how to access the settings for the router, until I finally dug up something which said I needed to use telnet. So we telnetted into the router. Then it turns out the router uses SUA instead of NAT which I don't quite understand, anyway, we followed a couple of instructions found on the Zyxel web site for port forwarding, but it didn't work. We ended up spending 2 more hours, me reading and trying to come up with new ways of trying things out, and Úlla following orders. To begin with, we couldn't even get the port open to a port scan. After figuring that out, we still couldn't get the port forwarded to the server on her comp. At that point I gave up, it was just too tiring and my back was starting to yell at me.
Anyway, Úlla, I was impressed by your patience, fully expected you to say screw it! and give up at any moment.
So haven't done anything else today, still in my robe, lounging around...think I'll probably lie down a bit, rest my back. My sleep schedule went totally out of whack for some reason. A couple of nights ago I slept horribly, dreaming about people I haven't thought of in months, years even. I guess when things have a deep effect on you, one never forgets them, you always have your subconscious to remind you. So I was waking up in the middle of the night, like, semi-violently, but not from nightmares....I can't remember what I was dreaming, but it wasn't a nightmare...I don't think I've had a nightmare in 20 years, not since I was convinced Donkey Kong would crush me with his barrels.
I have 6 books on my nightstand, which I'm reading slowly but steadily...picked up the book an ADD mamma sent me, and skipped straight to a little test. "If you have 12 of these 20 items or more, you most likely have Adult ADD"
I had 17
Hmmm
Can't say it comes as a surprise. But I wonder whether I really need to do anything about it? I mean, I've come this far, and done some nice things, maybe I like me the way I am, absent-minded and all. We'll see, I'll finish reading both the Noonday Demon, and Driven to Distraction and then make some decision.
By the way, you guys should check out this painting by Svanur. Pretty good in my humble non-artist opinion.

2004-04-23T13:53:00.000-04:00

Well, just did my presentation.
I think it went well, was pretty much prepared and people were interested. It was just a small one, for the students in Reggia's lab, about 10 people listening. Jim said I did great, and I guess I did fine. Nobody asked questions except for one guy who asks questions in all the seminars. Usually when you get no questions, that can mean a couple of things.
1. The lecture makes no sense whatsoever, and people don't want to seem stupid by asking questions
2. The lecture is crap and people don't want to embarrass me by asking questions
3. The lecture covered all topics to the satisfaction of all the listeners
I'm hoping my lecture fell into category 3.
Either way, I'm done, which doesn't really mean anything other than that I can now focus on my other projects. Doing a final project for both the Computer Graphics class and the NLP class. The CG project is pretty cool and I'm not gonna tell you about it just yet, want to get it running first. The NLP project, I really haven't decided on, but I want to try to connect it to SNePS and the research I'm doing with John, try to kill two birds....(squawk!)
Got a lot of exercise this week, went to the gym twice, played some soccer and played some basketball. I think I'm gonna try to make the soccer and basketball a regular thing, because those much better exercise (and more fun) than using a step machine. Also, I would like to try to find a tennis partner. Playing a full game of intense tennis has got to be one of the most tiring things ever. Can you imagine, 3 hours of sprinting short distances interspersed with spurts of power as you smack that ball? Quite intense.

2004-04-19T01:56:00.000-04:00

Welcome back to the big I.
Just when I though I'd gotten my sleep schedule under control, insomnia creeps back. Oh well, guess I'll just use the chance and ramble on a bit.
I just finished watching the first season of a show called Carnivale. This show is really something. I'm not going to tell you anything about it, that would just ruin the fun. It is a totally unique show, never seen anything like it. However, I have READ things like it. Yeah, this show has that certain feel to it, of one of Stephen King's masterpieces. Now, that doesn't mean this is necessarily about horror and gore (but it also doesn't mean it isn't, trying not to give anything away here :p ). Just the way the characters are developed, the way the plot develops, the way the story is told...it is all reminiscent of King's style of storytelling. Which might account for why I love this show. Now I just hope the following seasons are of as high quality. I know HBO signed up for a second season, but there has been some trouble with it. Probably won't air until 2005.
In other news...I took a break from school this weekend, and instead did a whole lot of reading on financial issues (!). Yup, me, learning how to handle money. Whodathot? Thinking about possibly doing some investing in the next coupla years, maybe some real estate. We'll see. I just started reading, so I really don't know anything yet, except that my interest is piqued, and that OCD part of my brain is revved and ready to go. As I mentioned before, Andy is thinking about business stuff, and Þóra mentioned something about real-estate in passing recently, so I have people around me possibly thinking along similar paths. Also, I figured why not talk to my landlord? Maybe he'll have some insight for me.
Ahhh! Finally my eyelids are showing signs of droopiness. So, back to bed, take 2.

2004-04-15T23:18:00.000-04:00

Just had one of my many arguments with the Swan over stuff, usually about our (very) differing world views. It's funny how you can have very much in common with people on some level, and then on some other level, you just totally disagree. I guess that's what makes strong friendships, being able to disagree and still stay friends. Anyway, like always, it was definitely an interesting argument...Started like this:
Freysi: "Firefly rocks! I can't believe they cancelled it. Couldn't they see how amazing this show is? If they just give it a chance I'm sure it'll make money"
Svanur: "Yeah, dumb management types. But it wouldn't necessarily make money, just because it's good. I mean, look at Predator. It only recently went over the 'cutting it even' mark."
Freysi: "Predator sucks."
At this point the argument went into a discussion about what is quality. The thing is...I loved Predator. I think it's a great movie. But I also think it sucks. This confuse anyone yet?
Ok, so every time I see Predator, I love it, I have loads of testosterone-filled fun. But if I were to dissect the plotline, the character generation, the whole premise of the movie, it would just be blindingly obvious that it's a piece of crap. This didn't lessen my enjoyment of it though.
Now this is an argument I've had with many people, including my parents(then about music). And pabbi and I have basically decided to agree to disagree.

I say that enjoyment is something completely unrelated to the actual quality of the item (whatever it may be).

This being said, I realize that 'quality' is a generic term. You could measure the quality of a film in how much enjoyment it creates for you when you watch it, or in the emotions it brings forth. This is a highly personal experience, and in my book I call it 'enjoyment'. So let's all for now agree on that basic terminology. So my argument is that a film (or any other work of art) has an inherent quality that has absolutly nothing to do with anybody's personal judgement of the artwork that could be (and is likely) clouded by many things, including emotion, hearsay, social taboo, and other people's judgement. The basic argument in relation to music is (set forth by Leonard B. Meyer) as follows:

Music which is what the ear expects to hear is of no value. Surprising the listener is what matters.

What this basically means is that, using this definition of quality (as an abstract measurement), everything that we know as popular music, is of low quality. Now remember, this has nothing to do with whether you "like that song" or whether "those lyrics touch a chord in your soul". The huge majority of music created today is incredibly simple, in that they reuse forms which have been around for many centuries. This sort of touches on the whole issue of "the government wants us to be complacent" (which is a whole story in and of itself). The market seems to be pushing this kind of stuff on us, generic things that are designed to work well with our ears. For example (Music theory warning). There is a certain chord progression known as a church cadenza, namely the chords IV-V-I. This is one used extensively in early european music. The V chord creates a tension which our ears, because of the way they are physically built, attempt to resolve. It's actually a type of antialiasing, like what our eyes do, we fill in the gaps. So with a chord we don't like, we actually "fill in the gap" by "hearing" what sound should come next. The sound that should follow is the I chord, and when it does, we experience a sense of resolution. During the early ages of european music, composers quickly realised this and used it to their advantage, creating the chord progression IV-V-VI thereby tricking the ear of the listener into thinking it would resolve it one way (the strongest way), but instead resolving it another way. This would give the piece of music, in Meyer's book, a higher value. (This is analogous to a sudden, yet in hindsight, expected, twist of events in a movie) However, you should make sure not to have too many unexpected things, as the listener should not lose sight of the original goal/theme. Too many trick endings, and the listener will have lost sight of the original key, and when you return to it, that key will sound wrong. This decreases the value in Meyer's book (not the sounding wrong, just the affluence of surprises). (A good movie example of this is the nevernding twists and turns in Wild Things).
So what I am basically saying is that the experts in a field are the most qualified to tell the rest of us what is quality within the field. So listen to the art critics. Most people dismiss this out of hand, calling it "arty-farty" or "snobbery", but if you truly look at the logic behind it, this makes sense. If your measure of quality is to find what it is that works best for the human body and mind, and keep everybody complacent, then you should be happy with boy bands and hollywood. If your measure of quality is something that surprises you, and not necessarily in a good way, then one goes for the unlabeled music, and the independent movies.
An example that I always use in this argument is the movie 2001:A space Odessy.
I hate this movie.
I hate this movie.
I hate it so much I had to repeat myself. And yet, I think it is a masterpiece. I can totally appreciate the things that were amazing about this movie, even though it bores me to tears every time I force myself to watch it.
Another example I use is Beethoven. I don't particularly like Beethoven. In fact, I usually feel agitated when I listen to him. (Except for that one movement of his second.) However, after having extensively analysed a number of his works, I must admit that he is a master, and his music is incredible.
A lot of people have difficulty grasping or accepting this fundamental step of separating experience from analysis. Now, granted, when I say quality is a measure of value, value must in some way be based on the societal experience of an art field as a whole. For instance, at some time in the past, a cliché was an inspired and witty comment. However, this connection to society is at the same level as the measure of quality I am discussing, in that it is in effect based on the measure of quality at a previous moment in time. For example, when a cliché was new, it had value because it was different from what was being said at that moment. Now, when we hear the cliché, we compare it to the state of events, and see that the cliché is in fact...a cliché. This is only true because it is no longer surprising, not because it brings about negative emotions or anything like that. It simply does not hold the value it held before. Ergo, we attempt to create some new witty comment.
In any case, I'm not saying that I have the expertise to be someone who can define quality in movies (I do believe that I can do so with music however), I can only base it on my own experience, however,(becuase I hear voices saying "but we all do that") I do so by thinking about things that give the movie value. For example when I watch a movie I look at as many things as I can, the lighting, the makeup, the clothing, the casting, the camera shots, the music, the colors, and I compare it to things I have seen in other movies. And when I see something different I note it, and reflect on it. A certain incident comes to mind, in Psycho, where the "mother" finally attacks. The camera abruptly changes from a side view to a top down view, and you see this creature moving incredibly quickly. It is quite a striking switch. And I immediately thought "what great use of the camera". This surprised me and caused the movie to increase in value. The next time I see something like this, I will think, "oh yeah, saw that in psycho, pretty cool effect." The 100th time I see it I'll say "seenit, yawn".
IMPORTANT FINAL NOTE
I'm not saying that the "This thing rocks/sucks" view is not totally valid. We need to be able to talk about both these points of view equally. The layperson has to be willing to defer to the expert, and the expert has to be willing to accept the fact that, although the layperson may accept the expert's analysis, he will always have his own personal view not based on knowledge but on feeling.
So to sum up:
Loved Predator, but it's a terrible movie
Hated 2001, but it's a masterpiece
and Beethoven's a jackass.

2004-04-12T00:31:00.000-04:00

Had a very nice weekend with ma family.
First stop was at Þóra's place on saturday. So I was going to just catch the subway right after rehearsal saturday morning, and be there around 3pm or so. I got a little tied up, washing some dishes, throwing out garbage (so my room wouldn't stink when I came back) so I left a little later than I should. Thought about taking my bike, but didn't. Apparently you can bring your bike onto the subway if you just use the last car. I just didn't feel up to the hassle that day. Anyway, so I walk out and I've gone halfway to the busstop (like 100 feet) when I realized, "hey I should bring a book, just in case". So I figured, what are the odds I'll miss the bus within the next 2 minutes. So I go back. When I get back to the halfway point, the bus rounds the corner and speeds away.
Crap.
So I decided to just walk. Takes about an hour, but the weather was nice and I figured I'd make a trip out of it. (And I knew there would be a Smoothie King on the way ;)). Read a few pages of "The Noonday Demon" on the subway, and had a girl stare at me, probably thinking "why would somebody read a book about depression in public?" Oh well, did't care.
So when I get to Clarendon station I meander around for a while, looking for a pay phone. I did notice some guy standing behind this huge map of the metro for some reason. Was kind of weird, I could only see his feet, and he was just standing still. I figured if he wanted to mug somebody, he wasn't really doing a good job of it. So I kept looking, asked some people, and they pointed me back the way I came. Turns out that the mugger was in fact an innocent person using a payphone. And yes, above the map it said in large letters "PHONE".
Duhhhh....
So I got to Þóra's around 4:30, just caught the tail end of the egg decorating thing. Which was ok, because when it comes to egg decorating I always get completely devoid of ideas. Then I just start to color and dye pseudorandomly and the outcome is usually quite horrid. Christine and Andrew and Millie were there. It took Millie 2 seconds to yell "Snam!" at me (I refer you to older posts for the reason for this), and Andrew kept stating that he was a genius and that his egg (which he glued to an egg tray cover was also a genius). Fun kids :) Oh yeah, and I met Courtney for the first time in, like, four years.
After that, we went to a birthday party at one of Þóra's friends' house. A artist named Claudia. Nice food, nice people, funny little kids, and a bunch of nice artwork on the walls. Courtney kept asking me if I was alright, (because I had basically placed myself at the mercy of my aunts for the weekend :)), and yeah, I was feeling alright (apart from a headache...more on that later). It's reassuring to place one's scheduling in the hands of others for a short period of time. Towards the end of that party my head was pounding for some reason, although it didn't feel like my classic migraine. I was starting to regret leaving my Maxalt back at Branchville Rd. I figured though, that if I just got a bunch of water to drink, it'd go away, since it didn't feel like a migraine.
So we went back to Þóra's place and watched Hellboy, which Tos had just downloaded and copied for me, and I brought along. After like 5 minutes of that my headache was becoming unbearable and I had become nauseous. No idea why, but figured it had to be a migraine, however different it felt. And I knew I had to get to sleep, so sleep I did. And boy, did I have strange dreams. Forgotten most of them, but they were weird.
Woke up the next day, completely fine, with just a slight twinge of "migraine hangover". I can use that as an excuse for totally ignoring and stepping over the amazing easter basket Þóra made for me and put in front of my bedroom door.
Imagine a basket, all wrapped up, with that fake green grass in the bottom, a couple real, decorated eggs, a couple plastic eggs with goodies inside, and a shitload of assorted candy. And some intersting stuff, like a scented candle, and some cute clips for documents :)
So we sat around for a while, munched a little on some candy, tried to do a crossword puzzle, and then headed out to Freyja's for some easter chow. (There were also a bunch of complimentary easter jokes, like "eastertastic, eggstatic, eggsistential, and so forth.)
Whole lot of people at Freyja's, the usual gang plus some friends of Freyja's I hadn't met (although a lot of people I meet seem to have taken a vacation or two in Iceland...interesting), and Jóhann og Veiga (I hadn't seen them since I was tiny, so I couldn't remember what they looked like. But I recognized the immediately...they exude "Icelandicness" :)) Andy loaned me a book which I promptly forgot at Freyja's (too many things happening at once!). Anyway, the food was great, the cakes very tasty, and people generally in a good mood. Millie was very funny, she was the only one who got to do the easter egg hunt (Peter and I hid the eggs, but miscalculated, so we had her looking for one too many eggs for a while, whoops!). I actually got interrogated by her as to what I wrote about her last time we met (at thanksgiving). So anyway Millie,
Here's a line just for you!
:)
Left there around 5:30, full stomach and all, and got a ride back from peter and Þóra (dropped Courtney off on the way), and got back here, back to real life. Oh well, so I got ready for tomorrow (research wise), and watched Hellboy.
NOTE EVERYBODY! Very important. I promised Svanur I wouldn't tell him what I thought of the movie. We are alike in that, if we constantly hear what other people think about movies that we are excited about, it devalues our own experience. A lot of people don't understand this, the say "Chill man! I'm not going to tell you what happens or anything, just that the movie sucks!" This means that you're going to go to the movie and there's going to be a tiny thing in your brain that tells you that X though the movie sucked. We'd much rather go to movies with totally clean slates. That way we can be sure that it's completely our own judgement when we say "This movie rocks/sucks" Ok? So you guys who've seen it, don't comment about it here :)
However, I would like to tell you about an awesome tv-show called "Freaks and Geeks". On the surface it seems to be another show about teens and their problems with some funny scenes in between. But as soon as you watch one full episode, you realize that there is something more. The only way I've thought of to explain it is to say that all the characters are "real" and not contrived like the characters in shows on par with Smallville. It is such a shame this show was cancelled after only 18 episodes. But that seems to be the way TV works in the states. Here's a list of shows that I consider quality TV (with believable, lovable characters, and plotlines that span many episodes if not seasons), that have been cancelled at one point or another:
Angel
Babylon 5 (was cancelled after season 4 but picked up again by another network and completed)
Farscape
Freaks and Geeks
Firefly
Dark Angel (I never really got into this one, but like-minded people have told me I should)
There are probably a number of other episodes I'd put in this list, but because they were cancelled, it's more difficult to locate. A couple I remember watching with Pabbi, that weren't great but were still better than Smallville:
The Visitor
Nowhere Man
Dark Skies
Enough for now, gotta get up early and do some runnin :)
Nightynight

2004-04-07T12:08:00.000-04:00

Hell yeah!

Your future occupation by meteoric
Your name
Your future occupation	President
Yearly income	$516,352
Hours per week you work	3
Education	Very little

Created with quill18's MemeGen 3.0!

2004-04-07T11:08:00.000-04:00

Okokok, so I haven't managed to get to working out yet, BUT, I have managed to wake up at 8 every day for three days now. And I've been spending more time at school, which means more bike riding which means more exercise, which can be viewed as preparation for working out NEXT week.
Right?
But geez, monday was horrible for me. It's typical, right after I decide to change things around, stuff goes wrong. First of all, I managed to pull my back, have NO idea how. So I didn't go work out on tuesday or today, gonna let it heal. Secondly, my sleep schedule on monday was just laughable. Woke up at 8, but fell asleep again around 9, slept til noon. Fell asleep again around 4pm, woke up at 2am on tuesday, and stayed up til 6, fell asleep again and woke up at 8. Phew! Maybe my mind was working on something in the background, something which was eating up all my resources. At least, for some reason, these past few days I've actually begun to feel a little better, I even caught a glimpse of that thing called motivation. I think my chat with Andy must have had something to do with that.
Andy dropped by on Sunday and we went for lunch and did some other stuff. I had called Andy, wanting to pick his brain about the whole "working in the industry" thing people tend to do. Managed to get him to tell me about his school work and how and where he started working and such. The intersting thing was that Andy is sort of on the same line of thinking I am these days, the thought of working for someone else, making THEM rich, is not too appealing. I don't much care about the rich part, just want to do my own thing, and own it myself. So anyway, he described to me the lay of the land, pointed out some resources, we drove around, got some great sandwiches at some place called Booeys(sp?). It was definitely something I needed. Thanks Andy.
I also had two nice experiences with my research. John has been playing around with this program called SNePS, and called me in to have a look at his code, it wasn't working. So I came in, borrowed the code, went away somewhere to be alone (I think best when I don't have somebody else interrupting my thoughts :)), and figured out his problem within an hour. Always nice when that happens.
The other thing had to do with the quarterly report we had to write for the grant. I had written most of it, and sent John a draft where I noted that I had some stuff I wanted to fix up. He sent a note back which said, "nono, this is great, we'll use this." I was so surprised that I went and asked Jim, and he totally agreed. I guess my level of perfectionism is higher than theirs....oh well, that's not necessarily a good thing, right :)?
Anyway, Jim wanted to talk to me about my future thoughts, where I wanted this research to go with respect to my PhD. When I told him that I didn't even want to decide WHETHER to get a PhD until the end of this summer, he seemed a bit surprised and disappointed. But even so, he said that any help I needed he'd be more than willing to give, and if I decided to go for the MS, he'd be more than happy to help me out with that too. However, he did warn me that he'd do everything possible to convince me to stay for the PhD. (He said he thought I was "good", and that I'd have no trouble finishing a PhD. Always a nice thing to hear:D)
Alrighty, enough patting myself on the back.
Got my router/WAP yesterday, now I only have to wait for those slowpokes to drop by and hook up my connection. They have to come by the area to flip some switch in some box to turn on the phone line, and then the phone line has to be on for a full week until they activate the adsl line. I have absolutely no idea why that has to be that way. Makes no sense, whatsoever. So that means my phone line gets activated next friday, and my adsl the friday after that. Until then, Binh and I just have to put up with each other. Although it does mean an extra $60 a month to my expenses, getting a full 1.5Mbs connection to myself is totally worth it. (The one we have now is 768Kbs)
Because of that extra sink on my expenses, I decided to wait with other things. I was going to get myself a water cooler/dispenser and have monthly water deliveries. And I was going to get a cell phone. The water cooler would have cost me $160 (or $13 a month in rent) and $8 for 5 gallons of water. I probably would have needed 2-3 of those, so that means an extra $24-25 a month. The cell phone would cost me around $100 with maybe $15 a month(I'm guessing) So that would bring me up to an even $100 a month extra, with a start cost of $260. Not quite sure I can handle that. On the other hand, if I got a cell phone I would stop paying for the old phone line here, which would be like $8 less a month. And with the water, I'd stop drinking anything else (juice, soda) so that would cut the costs. ($1.20 per 2 liters of soda x 10 = $12 a month) so I could bring that figure down to $80 a month. Hmm, maybe it's worth it. Boy, spending money is easy. And thinking up the next thing one needs is even easier. Apart from what I mentioned, I "need" a whiteboard, a bulletinboard, a mirror, and better speakers for music.
Oh yeah, and I also bought the DVD full series of Freaks & Geeks, and Firefly. Oh and some books.
This is what happens when I don't have a girl to spend my money on.

2004-04-03T17:36:00.000-05:00

Ok, time to change the feel of this blog (which, hopefully, will change the feel of my life)
No more complaining about people around me, no more complaining about my studies. Now I'm just gonna DO STUFF.
So I've figured out pretty much what I have to do first to be able to do stuff

1. Define a practice schedule for my trumpet. I really want to get back into shape and actually continue my training and get better. I was (and still am) at the point where I really don't need an instructor, just some discipline.
2. Define a workout schedule. I had a personal trainer for a year (when I did manage to get into pretty good shape) so I know what has to be done. Now it's just a matter of doing it.
3. Set up a cooking schedule. Was thinking about making like a monthly or bi-monthly thing where I'd cook something different every day of the week and repeat each week. Then change the schedule every 2 months or so. Since I'm shopping online, I could do this totally at home, find recipes and order exactly what I need and stick to it.
4. Force myself to stick to a strict sleeping schedule. Doesn't matter what it's like, as long as I always sleep my 8 hours at the same time. I guess it makes sense for it to be 11-7 or something like that, since things aren't open around here during the night, and anyway, walking around at night time definitely isn't a good idea.
5. Try to get all/most of my schoolwork done over the week so I can feel better about just doing whatever I want during the weekend. Basically, instead of spreading things out like I've done, maybe try to clump my free time together so I could possibly go into DC and do some fun stuff :)

How's that all sound?
It sounds pretty ambitious to me. Maybe too much to do all at once. However, I do have an OCD/stubborn streak in me, if I could just tap into that long enough for this stuff to become rote, it might just work. We'll see. I think I'll at least begin with the sleep cycle. I guess at the same time I could get my workout going. I need to get slowly into shape before I can start a workout regiment anyway, just get to the gym, do some running/cycling, then come back. Actually, if I do manage to start to wake up around 7-8, the best thing I could do in the morning would be to work out. Ok, that's decided, next monday I'm getting up at 7-8 and working out.
To all those people saying "piff!, yeah right, je ræt, or hah!", I fart in your general direction.

2004-04-01T19:59:00.000-05:00

After having almost 3 weeks of peace, Binh is at it again.
He starts out all nice and polite and everything but ends up being an asshole. He came up to me and asked whether we could talk about the internet connection. Here's my rationale:
1. We pay a set fee for our internet connection. So in effect, we're paying for bandwith, not amount downloaded. If we download 0MB then too bad for us, we didn't use up our limit.
2. There's three of us here, and our download limit is between 80 and 90 KB/s while our upload is between 20 and 25KB/s. So I used Netlimiter to limit my numbers to 30 download (gave myself a little leeway there since Dan is usually never around) and 5 upload (made sure to be low there so nobody could complain.
3. Since we're paying for bandwith only, and we split it evenly, it's not my problem that somebody else doesn't use his bandwidth.
4. If the net is slow for one of the other people using it, that's because you only pay for 1/3 of it so you can only expect it to be 1/3 as fast as a full connection.
This is Binh's rationale
1. I download a lot more than he does.
2. This slows down his net connection so he can't do his work.
3. The network in the house should be used primarily for schoolwork.
So basically, he wants me to pay like 95% of the cost because I download 95% of all that we download. However, since I'm still only using 33% of our bandwith, Binh could easily download just as much as I do, only he doesn't, which in my mind is just his loss. Also, (although this is being really hardball) I don't agree that schoolwork should take precedence on our network. I pay for my third, so I should be allowed to use it the way I want to, right?
So tell me guys, does it sound like I'm being unreasonable? I don't think so, but then again, I'm biased because I agree with myself (usually :p)
So I'm going to get myself a new line. Dan has expressed an interest in getting onto a new line with me, but I think I'm gonna keep it completely to myself. No hassles, no trouble.
URG!
Anyway, took that test today, and wow! was it easy. But that always makes me a bit UNeasy. When you're expecting a test to be difficult (and when it's open notes), and seems easy, the first thing one always thinks is, "boy I hope I'm not missing something". We'll see in about a week.

2004-03-31T19:35:00.000-05:00

This whole ip tracker thing inspires one to blog more often. Even though I've had a counter on my site for a long time, seeing detailed statistics makes it more "real", that people are actually reading...and a lot of people are. It seems that most people check in at least once a day. This is great! It might seem silly, but it means a lot to me that I have a lot of readers :) And it also makes me feel a bit ashamed for not reading everybody else's blog as much as they read mine :( There are just so many! I do get around to them, though, and then I usually read all that I've missed, so I guess that's fine.
Past few days have been studying for an exam next Thursday, on Advanced Computer Graphics. Doing things like bumpmapping, displacement mapping, shadowmapping, lightmapping (lots of mapmapmappings), radiosity, spherical harmonics lighting, and a bunch of other nonsensically termed phenomena :S It's funny, computer graphics is like this huge jury rig, basically the world is continuous, while the screen is discrete (each pixel is separate from the next), so to make things look like they are continuous, you have to sample them finely. But no matter how finely you sample, you'll always have problems (called aliases), for example a diagonal line will always be jagged, your mind will just fill it up for you. So computer graphics is basically about fixing all the problems that it actually creates for itself by having limiting hardware (screen, video card). Kinda stoopid :p
How many people zoned out during that last paragraph?
Anyway, got my result from my first exam, 91 thankyouverymuch. Geez, not to brag or anything, but probably 1/4 of the test I actually learned DURING the test (it was open notes). You'd think that they'd make the test more difficult if it was open note. But no. So I breezed through that one, with those 9 points off being pretty stupid mistakes, but that's my MO anyway. Now let's just hope I can do the same thing tomorrow (also open notes).
Even though I've gotten over the whole it's-strange-to-be-in-the-US phase...it's still strange to be in the US. I get these small "waves" when all of a sudden it's like "holy crap! Where am I and what the fuck am I doing here?" But they only last for a couple of seconds. Usually it's when I'm outside. It probably has to do with things that I don't consciously take note of, for example, it being warm and dark. That's just something that I'll never get used to. It's probably also connected to certain smells.
So inbetween studying, I'm just reading stuff, and downloading shitloads :) I've downloaded way more than I can watch right now, saving up for the summer. It's nice to have stuff on hand that I know I'm going to enjoy (at least to some extent) and can watch it when I want, instead of turning on the tv and surfing. Imagine going to the video store and being able to pick a year's worth of vidoes at once and then being able to watch them whenever. Very nice.

2004-03-30T22:16:00.000-05:00

Very cool!
I put an ip tracker on my website, just to see who's who of the blogreaders, and wow! got some really interesting results. Turns out I have readers from all over the world. Besides the hits from Iceland, I got 2 hits from the UK (that would be Bóbó and Ulk), 1 hit from Norway(probably Villi), one hit from Sweden, and 2 from Taiwan! I have no idea who those people are. I do know some people in Sweden, but I don't think they have my blog address. But I definitely don't know anybody in Taiwan.
So hey people, if you're one of my passive readers, drop in a comment, let me know who you are. Especially whoever you are from Taiwan :)

2004-03-29T12:42:00.000-05:00

Here we go, another tale of terror from The Annals of the Roommates of Doom and Evil and Shi'...
Dan's friend Gabe (who by the way, is the only one of Dan's friends so far that seems like a really nice guy) was leaving for a month long, cross-country bike ride and they were saying goodbye to him by getting drunk at the local bar, Town Hall. So Dan tells me we're leaving in 40 minutes, so I go get ready. 4 hours later we leave.
The bar was fine, we drank some beers, played some video games and stuff. I met one of my former students who turned out knew Dan, small world. So then we go back to our place, for the others to drink some more before we go to some party. At some point, they all decided not to go to the party but to go up to Baltimore (this is at 3am) to one of the guys' house and crash there. Just for the sake of crashing there. I really didn't feel like it and voiced my opinion. Then ensued a period of "Diss Freysi". Talking about how I keep "wussing out" on the partying. I really couldn't care less about that, my opinion of these people had already plummeted to bedrock. The only reason I went out that evening was because Gabe's a nice guy, and fun to talk to. Anyway, I'm telling you all this to give you an example of the way these people think. Here's the deal (two things):
The first has to do with getting "rounds" at a bar. The way I have always experienced it, getting rounds is sort of like an honor system. You basically assume that everybody will take care of their round for themselves, that is, you shouldn't have to watch everybody like a hawk to make sure they contribute. Kind of defeats the purpose. Basically, you just drink as much as you want, and make sure you get as many rounds as the guy next to you, or something like that. So they were doing rounds on saturday. Fine by me, I was just waiting my turn, when one of the girls turns to me and says "Freysi, why don't you get the next round?"
Now, maybe some of you don't think this is a big deal, but I think it's incredibly weird. I can't quite explain why.
The second thing has to do with the party at Dan's friend Ben's house, where I had to leave early (I talked about this in an earlier blog). Dan had promised me I'd be home at 6, and when we got there, it was one of his jokes to his friends that he had duped me here and I couldn't leave until he said so. So I was tired, bored and wanted to go home. While we were watching some basketball game, Tos sat down beside me and offered me a ride home, saying he needed to go to some store anyway. So I, of course, thanked my lucky stars and accepted his very kind offer, thinking that it was made in faith and by a nice person. Well, I was sorely mistaken. As they made it clear to me last Saturday, I was NOT supposed to accept this offer. No, I was supposed to politely decline because I was supposed to know that nobody in their right mind would make such an offer and such, it was merely a gesture of politeness. WHATTHEFUCK?!?
So does that mean that everytime Tos or Dan has helped me with something with a smile on their face and a kind word, that they curse me as soon as my back is turned?
Anyway, as I sat on the porch and listened to this, I figured "okay, this is just part of the society and I've gotta learn this stuff." So I said, "Well, how was I supposed to know, I'm still learning all the social nuances." Which just made them all scoff. "You've used that excuse too often man."
It's painfully clear that these people are not worth hanging out with.
Thanks all you guys for your support. Like I say, this blog's point was just to give you some insight into the way these weirdos think, not necessarily to elicit sympathetic responses (although they are always welcome:))

2004-03-27T19:33:00.000-05:00

Geez, Binh really is a stoopidhead.
First of all, today Dan, Tos and I were going to go bike riding down by Chesapeake Bay. I was actually looking forward to it, a day in the sun, getting some exercise, and a chance to take pictures. I actually went and had my bike tuned, bought a pump and a little cage for drinks, and I even made sure my camera battery was charged. They were going to wake me up at 8:30 this morning, so when I woke up at 9:30 I figured something was wrong. Dan in his typical don't-care-about-you-dick attitude didn't mention it at all to me the numerous times we passed each other in the house. I, in my stubborn way, didn't ask, waited for him to explain. Am I uptight, or shouldn't one expect some basic courtesy about stuff like this? Somebody invites you to X. X falls through. You'd think the person would let you know as soon as he knows, so you don't waste time waiting or getting ready. Also in the situation where somebody says X is tenuous. So you wait for confirmation. And you get it, 5 minutes before X is supposed to happen. It's just annoying.
So Þóra had sent me a mail the evening before saying she would be in the neighborhood in the early afternoon. So I told her I would be going out riding and I would be in touch to tell her my plans. So when it turned out there wasn't going to be any riding done today, I left her a message on her cell. She had said she would be done around lunch time, or 2pm. So I wait for her to call back, and figure things must be dragging on, because it was already around 2 o'clock. So I sat, listening to music, and continued to wait. The phone rang once, binh got it, and I figured it was for him. As it turned out, that was Þóra and Binh must have told her I wasn't here because he didn't come to get me. It wasn't until half an hour later that Binh deigned to tell me that Þóra had called. I tried reaching her but she didn't answer her cell, so I figured she'd just gone home.
Binh stoopidhead.
Why wouldn't someone check to see if someone is home when that person receives a call?
Geez, I live with a bunch of sociopaths.

2004-03-25T14:38:00.000-05:00

It's been a while.
On saturday morning, Dan shows up screaming about being late and we have to get our asses going RIGHT NOW!. I had no idea what he was talking about. Apparently we were going to a party at Ben's (friend of Dan's) place and we had to leave within 5 minutes. Dan had mentioned in passing that there would be a party that day, but had never confirmed it. As it turns out, that other thing he had invited me to, on wednesday...I was just supposed to show up there. He assumed I didn't need to be reminded or have it confirmed, or some bullshit like that. Anyway, so we drive all the way up to Baltimore and when we get there it turns out the party isn't starting for another like 2 hours. We had been tricked (by Dan) into coming early and helping set up the party. So Tos and I put together a grill they just bought (a big sticker on the front of the box said "Assembly free!"), which was interesting. I sort of figured out then and there that Tos is a know-it-all who isn't really that smart at all. I would look at the diagram and start to get the pieces needed and start to assemble. He would then say "Stop" and tear the diagram away from me and say something know-it-all-ish. Rinse and repeat, and we spent twice the time we could have doing that.
After that, people started to show up, family and friends. This was a surprise party for this guy Ben. He was leaving for Afghanistan the next day (in the army). So I sat there listening to people I didn't know talk and eat. I should have had a "I'm just here for the food" t-shirt. Didn't matter, I realized quickly that I had absolutely nothing in common with these people. They jabbered on about the army, and about basketball and made incessant stupid jokes about each other. The guys reminded me of Ingó and Tóti, sort of the point of the relationship is to make the biggest crack about the other person. So I managed to trick Tos into driving me home. I did have to finish a project which I was late with anyway.
So yeah, I finished that project, and to congratulate myself I downloaded and watched the 2-3 newest episodes of Angel, Smallville, ER, 24, Friends, Alias and Scrubs. Ahhh good times. I am so totally a tv-junkie. But at least I don't channel surf. It's all premeditated.
I spoke to John about my decision and he was nice about it, said don't worry and don't think about it until the end of the summer. So that's fine, at least for now.
Right now, I have a huge migraine headache that won't go away, even though I took my medication :'( I guess I'll have to just live with it for a couple of hours.

2004-03-19T20:35:00.000-05:00

Ok, I have a program that everyone should download. Skype.
It's basically an online phone program with a little built in chat thing also. So, goodbye MSN, hello Skype :) I just tried it out with Tiny back home, the quality is excellent and the delay is not noticable. Now all I need is a headset, cause talking into my headphones was cumbersome to say the least :p
I made an honest attempt at getting my taxes done today. Went to a free tax advice meeting, and brought the two things I got sent in the mail. Sat around for awhile, until it was my turn. The guy who helped me first expressed the mandatory 5 minutes of interest in Iceland and then got to it. We quickly figured out I didn't have some W2 form. So I said I would take care of it and would be back to him within the hour. He just laughed at me. "Even with the viking blood in your veins, it'll still take you a couple of days to get that form." I was nonplussed and just went back to my department, knocked a couple of heads, went back to my house, got some papers, logged in online, printed out my form and, voila! I was back within the hour. Needless to say, the guy was stunned. And there we go, yet another story someone will have to tell about the crazy Icelanders :p
Anyway, even after that there seemed to be a problem, where my department views me as a residential student while the office of the bursar still views me as an international student. Anyway, we couldn't figure some things out, and our time ran out so I have to go back next week, this time I'm bringing all my documents. Actually on the way out I stopped by the Graduate registration office and they explained some stuff...like for example my fellowship was supposed to be split in two, paid in sept and jan. It was split, but was paid in sept and dec, which means I pay taxes on the whole thing now. BUT it wasn't added to my W2 form like it should have been, which is what threw my advisor. Now that's clear, I should be fine next week. However, it seems that I won't be getting any money back from taxes. On the plus side, I got a lot of exercise today.
So things are good. I'm slowly but surely working on my project, slowly because I don't feel like it, not because it's difficult :p

2004-03-17T22:13:00.000-05:00

I made a decision last night (with a little help from family).
I made the decision to not make a decision about the future of my studies. At least not yet.
Being pressured into deciding right now whether or not I'm going for my PhD has been making my life miserable. Basically, by doing this, I'm tricking my mind into not thinking about it. Now I just have to meet with John and Jim and tell them what's up and see how they react.
So I'm feeling much better, þungu fargi af manni létt, like we Icelanders say.
Last sunday, Maryland Terps (Terps is short for Terrapins, which are little turtles) won the ACC championship in college basketball. That was a huge deal, the Maryland team has always been pretty low, and the final game was agains Duke from North Carolina, which is the number one team. So everybody went out to party. Dan came home screaming and tore me to my feet and we went into the "downtown" College Park. Basically a collecion of stores right outside of campus. There were hundreds of students there, all of them watching a handful of students who stood in the middle of the street, yelling and burning stuff. At the other end of the road, we could see a slowly advancing line of police, fully dressed in riot gear. I couldn't help but think, if it weren't for those few crazy guys, this would be just like a weekend back home. And do we need police with riot gear and tear gas? Nope, we make do with 2-4 cops.
Anyway, they advanced, they shouted, they threatened, and the students moved back. Nobody got shot with pepper pellets or rubber bullets, and only one student got whacked with a baton for not getting down off the wall. And the police officer actually warned him first.
Police - "If you don't get down I'll whack you!"
Student "Hah, I'd like to see you tr-"
WHACK!
On the way back home, Dan and I stopped, got a beer and watched the news at the local hick bar. Then Dan called a friend of his and we all went back to that bar and got drunk and played some stupid golf video game. It was lots of fun, but I never learn. I shouldn't drink. I stopped drinking for a reason. I guess I just needed a reminder. Spent the whole day afterwards being sick and watching ER.
I had a test today which I didn't study for. It was an open book, open note test, and I think I did pretty good. We'll see. Now I only have one project left to do for monday, and a test on the first of april, and things slow down a bit.
Dan flaked out on me again tonight. On sunday he invited me on a double date tonight. Haven't seen him since sunday. I'm not really surprised, he's done this before. He also invited me to a party on saturday. We´ll see what happens.
Anyways, so time flows on. Kind of sad, I used to organize past events in my memory based on what girl I was seeing at the time (girls take up so much time, it was easy to use that to pinpoint certain events;)), but now, I use what tv-series I was watching at the time.

2004-03-14T09:56:00.000-05:00

I confronted my (Binh)Demon!
So I was downloading, and I had gotten this program called netlimiter to limit my upload speed to like 1/5 of capacity so as not to slow down web browsing too much. And then Binh wakes up and immediately slaps on the filter. So I got mad and stormed over to his room and basically put him in his place.
1. We both pay as much for this connection
2. This means that I'm entitled to use as much of the connection as he is, without him interfering in what exactly I'm doing with my part.
3. As long as I'm not infringing on his part, he's just going to have to put up with the browsing being a bit slower, because he's not getting all the bandwith, only 2/3.
In fact, because I limit my upload to 1/5 he actually can use up to 80% of the upload bandwidth (upload has much more an effect on slowing than download) I also limit my download to about 1/2 capacity, since Dan is never around anyway. I could have argued with Binh for 1/3 or even 1/2 capacity with the upload but I figured it didn't matter that much to me, it's the download that counts ;)
So anyway, first he said "no no, too slow." So then I told him that he could just pay me for usage of my part. Let's see, if he has his block on for 8 hours a day, that means he'd have to pay me 1/3 of what I pay for the connection, which is...hehe $5 a month.
Ha! I'm glad he didn't think that through. He just shook his head and said okok, "we trah this".
So things are looking up. Also got my second delivery from peapod, essentially the same as the last one, except by accident I only ordered one green pepper, was going to order like 6. Kinda funny to get a special delivery, one green pepper.
Anyway, was up all night doing absolutely nothing. Best get to sleep so I can wake up later today and do absolutely nothing some more.

2004-03-12T22:06:00.000-05:00

I switched my processor heatsink out for a new one today.
The thing was, my fan was making so much noise when it was running, and it was always chaning speeds. We (me and Andy) had tried to fix it before new year's, and it seemed to run better, but finally it fell back into it's changing speeds(moods?). Anyway, I had attempted to order a fan a couple of months ago, and had carefully measured my existing fan to get the right size. I ordered the wrong size. I cursed and forgot about it until in january, when I again measured my fan and made sure I didn't order the same model (serial number 'n stuff). I got the same model sent. I cursed again. Finally today I had had enough of my fan's bitching and got Tos to assist me. Getting the old heat sink off turned out to be a herculean task. Boy, these really weren't designed to come off. We actually had to remove the whole power supply to be able to get enough leverage to pry the heatsink off. After that, I spread the Arctic Silver on, very professionally done for a newbie (even though I do say so myself) and then it was time to put the new heatsink+fan on. Well, that turned out to be an even greater feat. I had to put so much pressure on it, I was afraid I would crack the motherboard. Thankfully nothing bad happened, but I'll tell you, that suckah ain't goin noweah!
In other news, I did it again...worried over a project, wasted time trying to set it up at home, ended up working on it up at school (through a remote connection from my desktop) and finished it within 2 hours. Which is great, means I can spend most of my weekend doing my other project, and studying for my midterm. Hell, I might even get some research done. Of course, I have a huge stack of books I'm reading, half of them from mamma (and definitely very interesting). Now that I have my little reading corner set up, I have more incentive to just sit around and read. Looking forward to it. Right now, it's downloaddownloaddownload and studystudystudy.

2004-03-12T09:29:00.000-05:00

It's funny, one would think that I, of all people, would be a stickler for detail. But in reality, I'm not.
I don't like detail, I want things to be simple. If I need something, I use google and find it, and then I buy it. I don't like to shop around. For example, I "needed" a DVD writer and some disks. Went to bestbuy.com, found the "most-popular-cheap-on-sale" one, and bought it. Saw a relatively cheap stack of disks and bought them too. So when they arrive I say to Tos, "Hey, got my DVD writer." And he goes, "Cool, what kind?".
Duuuuhhhh....dunno.
I couldn't care less what kind. So he sits down and looks at my stuff and goes "Oh, a Lite-On, very nice. What kind of disks did you get?"
Duuuuhhhh....dunno.
Again, not caring. Then he starts to talk about how this kind is better than that, and I go aha, aha, and it all leaks out my other ear. Then he starts on about how it's best to write disks, blabla bitsetting, blabla firmware. And although I appreciate all his help, I don't care about this stuff, I just wanna write disks. If my disks fail, I'll just toss'em and write again. Maybe this is a defense mechanism, because I know that if I start to read about this stuff I'll get sucked into the world of offline media.
This again came into play when I went and bought myself a bike yesterday. I went in to the store, asked the guy to show me a decent bike for getting around the area, that would last me for several years. He immediately walked to one bike and showed me. I decided then and there that I would buy this bike. But, just to make the salesguy feel better I went through all the motions of shopping around, blabla. I don't care about material of the frame, or the quality of the suspensions, I just want A BIKE. PERIOD.
So basically, I'm impatient with things that don't work like they should. And I'm a programmer....that's got to be the worst matchup I can possibly think of. NOTHING works when you're a programmer. You're NEVER finished with a project. If you manage to get something to work, that just means you go the the next thing that doesn't work on your list. So this basically means I'll be impatient and on the edge of my seat for the rest of my professional life?!
Not good.

2004-03-11T11:51:00.000-05:00

Did this stupid test:

What Makes You Sexy? by eva71
Name/NickName
Gender
Sexy Body Part Is	Your Hands
Special Talents Are	Stalking Your Prey

Created with quill18's MemeGen 3.0!

Muhahahaha! Stalker.

Anyway, been having a couple of battles with Binh (Battles with Binh: The life story of Freyr Guðmundsson). One about the heat and one about the internet. So basically, Binh's room is cold and mine is sweltering. So I'd periodically go out and turn the air conditioning on and he' periodically go and turn the heat on. Finally I just approached him and said, hey let's just turn everything off, ok? He said fine. But with typical Binh attitude, he went back to putting the heat on a couple of days later. This seems to be his MO, just say fine to whatever his stupid roommtes say to placate them and then do what he wants.
The internet issue was different. There was some problem with our internet, in that sometimes the net connection would die, and it would come back online as soon as my computer was taken off line. So I ran diagnostics and all sorts, didn't find anythign and figured it was a fluke. Until Binh started disabling the wireless, which made me really mad. Instead of coming and talking to me and saying, hey let's figure this out, he just disables the wireless, rendering me without internet and him fine, since he's connected with a cable. Total passive agressive, don't-care-about-you behavior. Anyway, I set up another firewall on my comp, and it immediately showed me that my computer was trying to upload 400KB/s (which is a lot, for you laypersons:)), and detected an outside access to a certain point. Turns out that it was a worm called SQL Slammer which exploits SQL Server. I of course hadn't updated SQL server for a while and still had that security hole. But the firwall took care of it and now I can download in peace, finally.
In other news, I'm trying to learn perl for a stupid project, and then I have another project in OpenGL, and then one midterm and then spring break, which won't be a break, and then one more midterm after the break.
Bleh.

2004-03-08T15:13:00.000-05:00

So I have a new roommate. He's about 2 inches in diameter, circular, flat and lives in our shower drain. Oh, and he's made out of 100% Binh-hair.
So a couple of funny/interesting things have happened recently (apart from me spraying water waaaay up my left nostril while trying to avoid our resident dust-puppy in the shower). Dan decided to go to Israel and meet some people he knew there. A friend of his (who lives there) asked Dan whether he would be willing to bring some stuff along with him. Dan said sure. A couple of days pass, and then the packages start to arrive. Books, kitchen appliances, routers, memory sticks...all in all, probably about 100 kilos of stuff which Dan was supposed to bring with him. Talk about taking advantage of a friend. I'd've been furious :)
Anyway, so Dan goes to Israel with all this stuff, stops by in Amsterdam and gets high. Gets to Israel where he promptly gets deported. He just came back today, and showed me his passport. It was in really bad shape, all torn and the picture faded. Reaaaally smart, try to get into Israel with a destroyed passport.
While Dan was having his adventure, Binh had an accident on the beltway. First of all, he's a teeerrrrible driver. So, I'm not sure about his story. He says he hit a woman who had stopped her car sideways on the beltway. He says he didn't see how she stopped. This tells me immediately that he should have had time to slow down and stop himself. He even told me that he looked and couldn't get into the other lane because there was no space to switch. If you have time to think about that, let alone look, then you have time to slam the brakes. Anyway, nobody was hurt.
Tos has set up a nice cooling system for his computer. He has a cooler full of anitfreeze with a cooling iron thingy in it to bring it down to -20° F. This is then routed through a tube directly onto his processor and then out again, keeping it at between -15 and -10° F. For those less tech savvy, a normal fan cooling system on processsors keeps them at 40 - 65° C, around 100 - 150° F. Pretty cool (pun totally intended).
My DVD burner is up and running and I'm liking it (although it does take 45 minutes to burn a disk, and another 45 minutes to verify it :S)

2004-03-08T12:11:00.000-05:00

I hate it when this happens.
So I've been worrying about having to write a little analysis of two programs we're using in our research. I was supposed to write it by last tuesday, but got caught up in a project. So we postponed it to this tuesday, and I just managed to get off my ass this morning.
I wrote the whole 2 page analysis in about 5 minutes.
And when I look it over I think it looks fine. But I can't make myself believe that it's fine after only 5 minutes of work! Although, of course it's a culmination of weeks of reading...but still! Now instead of sitting and trying to force myself to begin, I'm sitting and trying to force myself to revise. Maybe I'll just say screw it and pretend this took me a couple of days to write and perfect.
Just got my new DVD writer, woohoo! Gonna go set it up and write some DVD's.

2004-03-07T13:04:00.000-05:00

Ok guys, I'm sorry about not updating my research site. I've just had so much on my mind lately (and had some conventional projects to work on) that I actually haven't been giving the research that much thought. I do have to do something for next tuesday (meeting with John then) so I'll update it again AFTER that.
I went with Þóra to Ikea yesterday (bandaríkjamenn segja ækía) and got a new, big, fake leather desk chair, with support for my back and a softer seat for my butt. I also got a little night table beside my bed with a little drawer and stuff. Beside that I put a comfy (but not too comfy, don't wanna fall asleep) chair and made a little reading corner. Finally, behind my door I put a coat rack for my clothes-that-are-too-dirty-to-put-back-in-the-drawer-but-not-dirty-enough-to-wash. So my room has a more cozy, comforting feel to it. Those of you who have seen my room back home know I like to stuff it full of stuff. I don't like empty rooms, my rooms have character. :p
Putting together the Ikea stuff was a total pain, and I have bruises and bleeding fingers to prove it. The worst was the coat rack, where you had to manouvre three pieces along with the main piece, a screwdriver and a screw all at the same time. Now THAT required som creative thinking. As soon as I thought of it as a puzzle, rather than a task, it became easy.
Anyway, now I'm just staring at my flat screen, sitting in my new fakeleather chair, and trying to figure out how I'm gonna force myself to start doing some work. I really have to, am behind in the research, and I need to start writing an article for Tölvumál about our Query-by-Humming thing.
This is me closing my eyes, waiting for it all to go away.
X-|
Damn, didn't work.

2004-03-06T07:30:00.000-05:00

I was speaking to Úlfur the other day about the future of working as a programmer. Basically, everybody starts out as a code monkey. So the usual way of thinking about a career is that you should slowly but surely rise in the ranks, correct? Well, that's not what happens in the computer industry. You're kept as a code monkey, overworked until you burn out and leave, so the management gorillas can stay in their position without the chance of some upstart monkey thinking you can manage things. So I guess there are a couple of options (similar to my last post because there are a lot of the same things roaming around in my brain these days).
1. Deal with it. Then get over it.
2. Learn to be a management type. Not for me.
3. Use the "monkey-days" as a period of making money to be able to do something else. I've been thinking a lot about this lately. I think I'm a pretty good writer and with some hard work and a little bit of luck I could possibly refine my writing to the point that I could get something published. So if I went ahead and got a job, apartment, the works, got all set up, and used my free time to write like mad, maybe I could use the coding job as just something to get by. I could set my goal to become a self-sufficient novelist within 10 years or something. Or maybe not a novelist, maybe something else to do with writing, like philosophy, or graphic novels, or sumthin, possibly even music (although I think that is far-fetched).
The more I think of this, the more appealing it sounds. Anyway...not making any decisions just yet. I think I'll probably try to fix up my short story and try to submit it to a couple of magazines, just to see what kind of responses I get.

2004-03-05T17:38:00.000-05:00

Boyohboy, lots of things going through my head these past few days. Only just now beginning to...well, not clear up...coagulate?
Here's the deal.
The stuff I'm doing in my research fascinates me, and everything I'm reading around it also, like the books mamma keeps sending me (Keep 'em coming! :)). The classes are not that hard, only time consuming. Especially the graphics one, brushing up on my stupid OpenGL skills, never thought I'd have to program in OpenGL again. Doesn't matter, I'm not really having a problem with either class. However, for one reason or another, I'm not enjoying myself. And I still haven't identified the reason why. Here are a couple of candidates:
1. I think a lot about my future and what my life would be like if I decided to become X. This led directly to me not pursuing a career in music because, as you guys know, I'm not the competitive type and that rules out becoming a soloist or rooting for a tenure position in an orchestra. On the other hand I could have become a music teacher and attempted to compose in my free time. This did not seem like an attractive prospect at the time, I had not enjoyed teaching music and didn't feel like having that kind of haphazard life to look forward to. So I went to computers. Now, as I look forward, I think, "What will I do with a PhD?" I could build up a career in academia, work towards getting tenure at some university, do research, apply for grants, write papers. For some reason, this does not appeal to me. Not in the slightest. On the other hand I could go into the industry. This is something that I have been afraid of ever since I realized that the computer industry is basically made up of programming monkeys. You're a monkey and you have a boss gorilla who is a management type who knows a little programming. You'll always be the monkey and you'll always be underappreciated and overworked, unless you land that dream job where they realize that programmers can only work at peak for about 5 hours a day. Any longer than that and they will burn out. Another think I really want in a future job is the possibility of coming home and totally removing myself from the job, that is not bringing the job home. Working in a field where I would be doing ongoing research seems to me like the perfect job to occupy my obsessive mind 24/7. And I definitely want time to play and take care of my hobbies. So I've been thinking that maybe I shouldn't go for the PhD. Maybe I'll just say goodbye after getting my masters. Maybe I'll just say goodbye right now.
2. I don't have enough social contact. Maybe all my doubts are created by me being in some strange state of mind brought on by my (self-afflicted?)isolation. Maybe if I were in my right mind, I would LOVE it here. Mamma keeps telling me that I flourish around people, and I think I tell myself that as well. However, I have never felt any need to actively try to attract people to me. The first day at school, I'm not the one going around and introducing myself to everybody. I'm the guy going about his business but without putting up a "social wall". The whole social thing out here is difficult for me because I don't feel comfortable around people here because I don't know and understand all the social niceties, which makes me want to be around them less which makes it more difficult for me to learn and to finally BE comfortable. Vicious circle. I'm pretty sure it'll break by itself as long as I keep going to class and get involved a little more in the music. Mamma had a great idea. I should just print out an advertisement and hang it up in the music center. "Trumpet player seeks gigs." Which brings me to point 3.
3. Maybe I'm studying the wrong thing. Maybe I should be in music. I haven't been playing much these past few months, but recently, I've been practicing every day, listening to Mahler, Tchaik, Verdi, and Berlioz, and pining for the "good 'ol days" in Tónó, thinking how much I would enjoy spending my days doing nothing but practicing, playing, listening to and analysing music and writing music. Now if I could make that into a career and get someone to completely take care of finances for me, I'd probably be happy for the rest of my life (don't you make a pretty woman your wife, trallalla). The other thing I have thought about doing is writing, either novels or screenwriting.
I am pretty sure that my positioning in the world has nothing to do with what I'm thinking. I've really gotten used to living here, physically. I noticed it while I was out walking today, the surroundings are familiar and I don't feel like an outsider. I just think that I'm laking inspiriation, motivation, a muse, whatever you want to call it. I have so many things I want to tell people, so many things that go through my brain, and leave right away. I need someone around to tell these things to, insignificant as they are. If I'm home, and certain people are on MSN, I tell them, and I get an "amm", or a "heh" response. Sometimes I manage to grasp them into in depth conversations. But I miss being able to go upstairs, taking a break from reading or programming or whatnot, and just spilling my mind out at Mamma and Pabbi. Usually those things end up talking about this or that issue, sometimes politics, sometimes morales. And most of the time, those discussions would end with one or more person getting annoyed and leaving. But I think those discussions were really important to my mental well being. I have so many things going on in my brain at any one time (you realize that every second of the day I have a tune running through my brain, incessantly? Not always the same one, but always some tune), that being able to sort of corporealize my thoughts gave my brain a little respite from thinking. Make sense? I think that if I had someone like that around, and if I had a concrete reason for completing my PhD, then I would feel completely at ease. If I knew for example that I had a job lined up with a think tank at Rare or Microsoft after I completed, I would be working my ass off to make sure they really wanted me. But since my future is this amorphous blob, I guess my subconscious doesn't see the point and my OCD personality takes over and says "Freysi, you need to watch all the TV-shows in the world. Then you'll feel better." I'm actually thinking about creating a database about beer and rating different brands, cold and warm.
Anyway, like I told mamma last time I spoke with her, if it weren't so much of a hassle, and if I would really listen to my impulsive self, I would drop everything right now, go back home, take Svanur and Úlfur, go somewhere into the countryside for a month and brainstorm and create a movie script or two and try to sell it. Or get Svanur, Úlfur, Bóbó, Börkur and some management types together to find some niche in the computer industry a fledgeling company could capitalize on and go for it. Anything other than doing what I'm doing now.
The sad thing is, you know what the strongest reason I could find for wanting to stay in the states? (apart from having the chance to get to know the long lost side of my family of course ;))
The internet dowload here is free.

2004-03-02T23:53:00.000-05:00

Oh yeah, couple of things I forgot.
I actually did blow up an egg by overboiling it, I think some people thought I was joking.
I am continuing to write what I started and will periodically post what I have written.
I have broken the 10000 visit barrier :D

2004-03-02T22:12:00.000-05:00

So Vegeta has been complaining that I don't blog enough. Or rather, not enough about stuff like I used to, stories about other people being annoying or funny. Well, that' because the past coupla months have been pretty boring. Just research and hang around in front of my computer. I could have blogged about what I was downloading. Today I downloaded the first 14 episodes of Inuyasha. Woot! But that's nothing compared to the day before when I managed to download the whole Cowboy Bebop series. Don't fall off your seats folks.
So anyway, today seemed like it would turn out just like any other, woke up pretty early (am turning my sleep cycle around, the wrong way), started to do some programming, not working, drink some coke (my coke drinking skill has gone up .3 points since last week), curse about stupid OpenGL, bang my head against the keyboard (Head...hit...keyboard), but Ulk about helping me with OpenGL(thanks Ulk, you were very patient with stupid ole me) and finally managing to solve the problem plagueing me since monday morning. After that went to class (computer graphics) where the teacher showed this aMAZing video, you guys have to see it. It's only 30 MB, shouldn't be too long of a download. But this teacher...he's a funny guy. He's this rotund little Indian who's always smiling, you know that kind of smile that a really good looking person has, almost smug. Needless to say, he's not that appealing, and he does this same thing that all of the professors have done while speaking to me, there's a sort of pause after I ask or say something, as if I said someting immeasurably stupid and they're trying not to be rude. Kind of interesting...wondering whether that's an american thing.
Speaking of American (yukyuk), I totally went overboard this morning. Had a wonderbread sandwich, with American pasteurized cheese and some round flat thing that professed to be a slice of turkey, along with a squirt of American mustard. This I ate with a tall glass of mountain dew Code Red (cherry flavored), and afterwards I broke out into song "Oh-ho say can you seeeee".
:p
Anyway...on the way home from school I stopped by at Burger King for the second time since I moved here. (Really!) And funny thing, there was only one other guy there, and it was the same one guy who was there the last time! Doodoodoodoo (twilight zone). I sat there eating (he even sat in the same place), watching this guy, wondering who he was and such. And then he makes a phone call. Blablabla, I won't be home until later...and then the kicker "yeah, I got caught up at work, gonna have to work late." Strange, since your sitting at burger king dude. Then he hangs up and makes another call, this one more discreet, I couldn't hear everything, but it was clear he was talking to a woman (guys speak differently on the phone to girls, it's true). I caught things like "...yeah I'll be there soon...", "...my wife..."
I think I just witnessed someone having an affair :) hehe.
Tonight was the concert with UMRO. Went fine, although there wasn't really that much pressure on me. We played Smetana, Moldva; Johann Strauss, Die Fliedermaus; and Bizet, L'Arlésienne. There was a girl playing second trumpet. Poor girl, around 18 years old, with huge skin problems. Would otherwise be moderately cute. But a pretty good trumpet player nonetheless. Anyway, that was fun and there's gonna be another concert, I'm guessing in May.
Grabbed a six-pack of Heine on the way home, and am sitting here, blogging and tossing one back. Ahh, forgot how good Heine is.
Skál!

2004-02-28T14:14:00.000-05:00

Who here hasn't always wondered what happens to eggs when you boil them too long? Well wonder no more, for I have the answer.
They explode.
All over the place.
They will literally cover your kitchen with little, black, crispy pieces of charred shell and tiny pieces of really, really hard yolk. Not that I just had this happen to me. Not that I started boiling eggs and then realized an hour later that I had left them boiling.
Not me.
Got my first issue of Scientific American yesterday. I was all excited when I saw it lying on what passes for our coffetable. Can you imagine my excitement when I picked it up, all ready to expand my mind with tales from the fringes of science, when the magazine fell apart in my hands. The stupid postal service had completely mangled my magazine. Sent a complaint to Scientific American, hope the give me a new issue.
Other than that, I've just been doing ma research. Had a little brainstorming session with John, where I think I managed to come up with at least two ideas which he hadn't thought of yet. And as an extra boost to my ego, the way he laid out the brainstorming session reflected an idea I had proposed the previous week (which John had expressed doubts about). Soooo, that went well.
I realized an interesting thing the other day. Since I moved here, I have actually managed to get to know some of my friends back home much more closely. I have a certain core of people I speak to at least a couple of times a week, sometimes every day. And a lot of times, it's at that hour of the day when people are feeling philosophical, or maybe a bit down, so we have interesting conversations. This is sort of the same as mamma and pabbi mentioned, about how interesting it is to get to see into their children's heads through this bloggy thingie.
Anyway, I'm gonna go to sleep, was awake all night.
Your head asplode!

2004-02-26T06:01:00.000-05:00

Although I do get some kicks from writing in my blog, I figured out that one of the things that is probably not helping in my mood swings is the fact that I'm not writing anymore. I went over some of my old stuff, like the novel I was always gonna finish. Had about 120 pages of every-line-A4, which is pretty long, around 200 paperback pages, but as I read over it I realized it was a tad...childish. I had an almost uncontrollable urge to rewrite the whole thing then and there. Anyway, then I found another piece I had started on, but abandoned because I was leaving for the states. This was right after I had gotten a couple of books on writing and I was practising with exposition. Anyway, here's the piece:

Gourn would never have met the woman if he had not chosen to leave the safety of the byway. As it turned out it was much less a choice rather than an action of necessity. If he hadn’t veered his cargo hauler sharply off the byway the approaching speeder would have crashed into him, causing damage that Gourn did not feel like dealing with right now. He had enough other problems. However, the prospective damage a collision with a speeder would bring was nothing compared to what would have happened if the pursuing enforcer had collided with his modest cargo hauler. So, Gourn did the only thing possible in the situation. He left the controlled safety of the byway and braved the dangers of the deep.
Immediately, warning sounds filled the air. They were telling Gourn that he was doing something foolish. Gourn ignored them. He manouvered his ship off the byway, the guiding lights slowly but surely passing from his field of vision. The bridge of Gourn’s ship went from near darkness to pitch black. Gourn listened as his scanners beeped at him, telling him that he had been successful. The speeder had missed him as had the enforcer.
Those two had come from the deep, crossed the byway, and were headed back into the deep. Were they insane? And what was a Cheers enforcer doing here anyway? Gourn cursed the establishment as his ship labored to slow down and turn around. The sudden burst of energy needed to break the control of the byway had sent the cargo hauler coasting quite a distance. The guiding lights came back into his field of vision, casting a soft white glow into the bridge. Gourn peered his eyes slightly and set the engine to a slow but steady pace. He didn’t have enough fuel for another burst like that one. Breaking the control of the byway had nearly depleted his tanks and, although he didn’t need the fuel for the run, he did need it to dock. He estimated more than two hours before reaching the byway. Not good. Gourn had never been exposed to the deep before, but he had heard stories. And they were not pretty. However, the familiar glow of the guiding lights and the darkness of his bridge slowly calmed Gourn’s nerves, driving stories of terror from his mind.
Gourn’s last haul had been meager. He had barely been able to fill one of his four cargo bays with ore before running out of supplies. If he only had the credits to buy a diner, he could always stay afloat until his cargo bays were full. Gourn laughed ruefully. You could just as well hope for a star to grow back after a supernova. This haul would barely break even, covering the food and oxygen the expedition had cost him. Gourn silently cursed Cheers. Independent miners didn’t stand a chance.
Gourn had a simple solution for a rising temper. He reached over and flipped a switch, disengaging the inertial field. He undid the shoulder straps holding him in his seat and pushed gently away. Gourn relished the slightly queasy, yet undeniably welcome feeling of zero-g, as he floated up towards the center of his spacious bridge. This feeling soothed him like no other, allowing him to forget his griefs and cool down. If he had any say in it, he would never set foot in gravity again.
An alarm was set to wake him up before any course correction was made, allowing him to get to his command chair before inertia took over. Gourn breathed deeply and allowed himself to fall asleep.

So please, tell me what you think. Does it make you want to know more?

2004-02-25T20:34:00.000-05:00

This SUCKS! :@
I've been hanging around for like HOURS, not being able to force myself to start anything. And then, finally I manage to decide on someting I need to be doing, manage to force myself to get going, set everything up, and access the web site I need to do it....but NOOOOO the website is down.
There might as well have reached a hand out of my screen, grabbed my hair and slammed my face down into the keyboard. Would have been just as effective.
Plus! my finger hurts....
Back to moping around, I guess....

2004-02-23T17:19:00.000-05:00

It's funny how, when you're procrastinating and talking to someone on MSN, or watching Scrubs or something else as stupid, your unconscious mind is constantly working and once in a while it pops up with comments about yourself that have nothing to do with what you're actually doing or thinking about at the time.
Just a few minutes ago, I was talking to Svanur and I realized an interesting thing about myself.
I have a really hard time getting going on things that have to be done, but when I do get going, I almost always manage to keep my focus until it's done. Okok, that wasn't the revelation. This was.
When I really get going with things I almost always finish them more quickly than I expected. And that annoys me. Strange hunh? I guess the reason is that I've psyched myself up into having to spend (for example) the "whole weekend" working on a programming project, and when I finish saturday afternoon, I feel almost cheated out of the rest of the weekend. See, I like being "in the zone" and projects keep me there. So when they finish prematurely, I don't like it. And instead of beginning a new project right away, I go through the whole preparation phase of psyching myself up again. And that usually entails spending time hanging on the internet, chatting, watching tv shows, or picking my nose. So I guess I sort of just have to trick my mind into viewing everything as just part of a huge project, psyche myself up once and for all and get going with my life, right?
Sounds good...

2004-02-23T00:07:00.000-05:00

Took a strange book quiz, and got a strange answer...I guess it's a teeny bit fitting...

You're Siddhartha!

by Hermann Hesse

You simply don't know what to believe, but you're willing to try
anything once. Western values, Eastern values, hedonism and minimalism, you've spent
some time in every camp. But you still don't have any idea what camp you belong in.
This makes you an individualist of the highest order, but also really lonely. It's
time to chill out under a tree. And realize that at least you believe in
ferries.

Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

2004-02-22T03:55:00.000-05:00

I've read about 20 articles since friday (while watching tv-shows in between to maintain my sanity).
There's just too much to know out there. Each article mentions ca. 10 others that are intersting, along with mentioning names from literature, philosophy and media. On top of that, I also want to read my novels, write one of my own, learn a bunch of languages, get back into shape on my trumpet, get back into shape physically, write a couple of articles, learn to play a bunch of other instruments(guitar, piano), program a bunch of computer games and have a meaningful relationship.
...
And yet, I still find time to blog about it all.
...
As I was reading my articles and realizing that I was slowly understanding more and more of the concepts and often skimming parts of articles where they repeated stuff I had already read before, I also realized that at some point one has to stop reading and start doing (at least in the academic world as it is set up today). However, there are so many things in these articles that I would like to read more closely, and get to be an expert in. For example, just the whole field of logic. Even though I am a very logical guy, I am not really that proficient in using formal logic. And I would like to remedy that. My first impulse was to go online and find a book which would help me. Then all of a sudden I thought, "Fine, but will I ever actually read it?". I looked up at my bookshelf, full of really interesting books I have yet to read, and I figured...at this point, no I probably would not find time to read it. So then I thought, why is the academic world like this? Let's say I want to become an expert in this field I'm currently working in (I believe it's called Epistemology or Knowledge Representation and Reasoning, or something). To do that, I wouldn't really feel comfortable unless I was an expert in logic, and math, and a bunch of other things. Why can't I just spend my academic career becoming an EXPERT? You'd think that somebody who was total perspective over things, who has spent 100% of his time reading everything that is out there and understanding it all, would be more capable at figuring out new things, new connections. At the very least, he would never spend his time and energy researching something which had already been researched. At best he would be able to do what humans do best, take analogies from many different fields and possibly come up with something amazing.
In case you haven't noticed, this is just my OCD side rearing it's ugly head. I WANT TO KNOW EVERYTHING. Noble goal, right? I mean, there are only so many papers out there, right? I could get through them, if I managed my time, learned how to speed read, and got some incredibly rich person to take care of me for the rest of my life :D
Basically it boils down to one thing:
I hate having to stop.
I have no problem admitting to myself (or anyone else for that matter) that I don't know something. I have a problem admitting to myself that I don't have the time/resources to know more about it. Now somebody is going to say "So stop wasting your time watching tv-shows" Well, I don't believe it's wasted time. If I thought I was wasting time, I wouldn't do it. Trust me, there are a lot of tv-shows I think are a waste of time, and I don't watch them. I guess you could say that watching tv-shows is a hobby of mine, and everybody knows how important hobbies are.

I wish :
that I could download information straight into my brain and then let my subconscious work on while I do other things
that I had the power to change my corporeal body into any size and shape I so desired. Could you imagine being a bird for a day? Or hey, maybe I could understand women if I spent a month as one.
that I had a replicator that would make anything I needed for free
that I didn't have to worry about the future
that I had my own personal holodeck
that I could go without sleep and still be refreshed
that I could stop time without aging

2004-02-19T22:29:00.000-05:00

Even though I have already spent bunches of money, I still have a big list of things I need (as opposed to things I want, or want to need (or need to want? (hey recursive parentheses are cool(especially if you add a smiley to make things even more complicated:)))))
Good chair for my desk - The one I have really sucks. It's hard, and non-adjustable and tiny. But it was free :)
Coat rack - for all those clothes lying around that are not clean enough to go in the drawers, but not dirty enough to wash them just yet
Comfy sofa-chair - for my little reading corner I'm creating
Night table - for stuff

And then there are some things that I don't necessarily NEED, but would be really cool to have:
Tabletop watercooler - I noticed the other day how much more water I drank since I have my fridge next to and the water is always cool. This also means less drinking of other, less healthy, stuff.
Whiteboard - This would be soo cool, ultimately branding me as a geek to anyone entering my room. So many times I have had ideas and drawn them on paper, only to have the paper run out of space or the pencil break or something stupid. Having a whiteboard in my room, always handy, would be very cool. Also I could change it into a speaker with one of these.

I love my fridge. I love the fact that my fridge is full of food. It makes me feel a bit more...independent? grown-up? Does that make sense to anybody? I can now go and make myself a sandwich with turkey, cheese, onions, pickles, lettuce and mustard and it's ALL MINE! :) Boy am I losing it.
The only problem is, I don't have room for a gallon of milk (or water) so I have to keep it in the other fridge. And I suspect Binh of drinking my stuff. I'm running an experiment; I marked the level of the milk with a permanent marker. I'll check out the level tomorrow afternoon ;)
Svanur mentioned something about how watching tv-shows is like being stuck in a rut. You spend a whole lot of time staying in one rut (watching one show), only to finally get out of it and fall into another (some other show). I personally am proud of all the shows I've watched and the fact that I can have an intelligent conversation about each and every one of them. Narrative is what it's all about, boys and girls, and if tv-shows gives one his narrative fix, then I say that's just as good as reading or any other type of "narrative-in-a-box" media. In any case, watching all that stuff has made me who I am today, and since I actually am fond of myself, I think I gained a lot from it. And hey, if the rut you're in is interesting, who say's that's a bad thing?

2004-02-18T21:04:00.000-05:00

Hey guys.
Boyohboy do I live an exciting life. Wheee... :| The most exciting thing that happened to me this week (so far, although I don't expect anything to top this) was doing my grocery shopping...ONLINE! Got it sent to my house for a mere $10 fee (although the guy brought it in the middle of an episode of 24, sheesh). Now all I need is to be able to program my fridge with my daily nutritional plan, have it synchronize with my computer, and order whatever is needed for this week for me. Now that would be awesome.
So have graduated from watching Alias (already caught up to the TV and the next episode isn't for 3 WEEKS! :'( ), and am now going through Smallville (while waiting for ER do finish downloading ). Okok, I have to...I MUST rant a little bit about Smallville.
[rant]
So Smallville is about young Superman. Fine. And he's got friends and a family who are all really perfect, really nice people. Fine. So the show starts out and it's as if the writers realized in the middle of things that having really nice and perfect people doesn't make for an intersting show. So instead of making these people act like real people, they give these nice perfect people a spattering of scenes where they turn into total jerks.
(Slightly)Exaggerated re-enactment:
Clark: Hey Lana, what's up?
Lana: (With a sickeningly sweet smile) Nothing much Clark.
Clark: Hey sorry I can't make our study date tonight.
Lana: (Tears off Clark's head and stuffs it down his bleeding neck) I don't even know you anymore, Clark.
Everything is a huge issue. There is no such thing as giving your (best)friend any measure of a benefit of the doubt. I know being a teenager is hard (been there) but comon! for kræsseik. And then in between acting all high-and-mighty they spout euphemisms and anecdotes about how trust between friends is all important and how "oh I'd love to be with you Clark, but there is just so much about you that you keep secret.." Hmm...
Clark tells his best friend about his secrets...and he won't tell THE WOMAN HE LOVES!! What kind of a message is this for the boys of this world? Keep up the "good ol' boys" attitude and keep the women out of it. In fact, keep the women where they're supposed to be. And hey, I could take that point to the extreme...Martha Kent gets a high paying corporate job, but she turns it down later because it's affecting her family yadayada and stays in the kitchen. The only "semi-independent" female character is a girl who is a freak and is out of everything socially, while the cute girl has absolutely no redeeming qualities and runs a coffe shop and in her free time spouts holier-than-thou anecdotes (and is the leading female character)
Clark makes a judgement call that ends with an accident that involves his parents. Ok, instead of dealing with it, he goes super-psycho and moves to metropolis on a crime spree. Yeeeeesss...no comment.
Anyway, the worst thing about this all, is that I'm still watching these shows ....
[/rant]
So one night the other day I had waaaayy to much caffeine and I couldn't concentrate and I couldn't sleep. So I lay in bed and started to think about my life, about everything that had happened. It wasn't that kind of thing where you look back and say "wow I had a great life" or "wow my life sucked". Just kind of a recap of everything that happened with no result. Kind of interesting. And then I started to think about how, if I were to meet some girl now, she wouldn't know about any of those things. She wouldn't know anything about what makes me, me. And that kind of makes me sad. I have really calmed down these past few years, I used to be really active in the party area, out all the time, really drunk and having loads of fun. And the people that know me best know that I can be lots of fun when I'm drunk. And the people that I will get to know in the future, probably won't get to see that side of me (seeing as getting hammered is not really on my schedule any more). I don't know...I guess I'm just afraid that any person who would be attracted to me now, would be attracted to the wrong me...while people I have known for years already know what I'm like. Oh well, maybe I'm rambling. This blog is definitely gonna get one comment which will say "but getting to know people is part of the excitement" Well...fleh...lost my muse.

2004-02-15T02:20:00.000-05:00

This is amazing. A press conference about the George Bush's military service. What's amazing is how the press sort of catches wind of something fishy and just attacks the guy answering questions. They just gut the poor guy :)

2004-02-15T02:05:00.000-05:00

I'm PI :D

I am
p

Everyone loves pi
_

what number are you?

this quiz by orsa

2004-02-15T00:02:00.000-05:00

The internet rocks.
But it also sucks.
I found a website for online grocery shopping. They have practically everything, and incredible user support, ranging from understanding you grocery lists to doing weekly scheduled deliveries. Minimum delivery is $50 and that costs $10. For any delivery over $100 it only costs $5. Since each time I go shopping I always buy for about $50, and I do so maybe 2-3 a month...I figure I can spare $20 - $30 a month on the convenience of not having to worry about getting myself there and back. Me likee thiss.
So my assignment this week was to read about SNePS and CYC (I'll talk about them in detail on the other blog. No problem with that really, except for the fact that I found the MOTHERLODE of documents about SNePS. Probably about 300 articles, and all of them look interesting....:S
Went to Þóra's 50th birthday party, which was lots of fun. Had a few more beers than I had intended to, but nothing serious. They actually had this reeeeaally good dark beer, called Dunkles...tasted almost like Malt...mmmmm...
Met a bunch of very nice people, Þóra's friends and coworkers. Also met Kara (sp?) Carpy's(sp?) daughter, very cute, very nice girl :)
We stayed at the bar for about 4 hours, and then drove back to Þóra's place for an eftirpartý, where Peter and I spent 2 hours debating about what was the origin of the 4/4 and 3/4 rhythms in music. A very interesting topic, I've never really thought about it that deeply before. Like always, I'm a bit more aware of myself when I'm debating, and I'm always a bit worried that I'm being too overbearing or too self-righteous without knowing it, but I don't think Peter cared, or noticed...he was a bit drunk ;)
Freyja was very nice as usual...picked me up (with Hildur) and dropped me off at home the next morning. Thankyouthankyouthankyou Freyja mín, and Thankyouthankyouthankyou Þóra mín for making me a "down-free" bed :) Boyohboy I'm gonna have a full-time job just repaying these kindnesses over the years :)
Anyway, just plodding along life-wise. Got going working out last week, went every day to do at least some running (augh! my muskler :() and am feeling tons better just from that. Endorphines are so underrated. Gonna go check out some of the clubs this week, one Wushu (acrobatic kungfu), ballroom dancing, and badminton. The rock climbing doesn't start until march, and the snowboarding is full :(
I managed to do a project in computer graphics - which we had 2 weeks to do - in about 12 hours. Now, if I can just figure out how to keep my brain in that kind of intense, overdrive state the whole time....things would be veeeery different :)

2004-02-11T01:29:00.000-05:00

Here we go again, allir saman nú (to the tune of Barcelona with Queen)
Insomniiiiaaaaaa, Insomniiiaaaaa.
Oh well, watchagonnado (when they come for you).
So my research is starting to come together bit by bit (as you can read about on my nerdy blog :)), and itlooks like this is gonna be lots of fun John Salasin is the guy I'm working the most with, funny guy. He's huge, in every sense of the word. He's got frizzy, curly, short sortof reddish hair, a huge nose and...well everything about him's big. And he always wears cowboy boots :) He speaks in this nasal, sort of guttural tone, not unpleasant though, and he speaks in a slow measured way. Obviously a very bright person. Also, he's against Bush. Let me iterate...a bright person. He introduced me to this website which held a competition for anti-bush commercials.
Got my webcam the other day, and set it up, so now everybody can see my stupid grin online instead of just imagining it :D Also got a package from thinkgeek.com sent. Caffeine.....CAFFEINE....'nuffsaid.
Have now worked out two days in a row, and picked up a brochure from the CRC. There sure is a lot to do on campus. I had no idea! Well, that's not true, I knew. Let me rephrase that. I had no motivation! Well now I do, and I'm gonna do lots of stuff, from snowboarding to badminton to rock climbing, wooohooo can't wait. I'm sure mamma is thriiiilled. :D

2004-02-10T23:45:00.000-05:00

Got my nerdy blog up and running. Check it out.

2004-02-08T21:17:00.000-05:00

The next Mind Map. This one didn't turn out so well I think, maybe I'll try to fix it up a bit. However, according to the Mind Map book, usually when you have trouble doing maps from articles, it's because the article itself is not structured well. The writer (Tony Buzan) actually sometimes uses Mind Maps as a technique to evaluate an article. So....Blame it on the article, not me :)
This map I did on an article named Reasoning with Narratives.
Nothing much else has happened here, I'm living the life of a hermit, creating a permanent butt mark in my desk chair. I just got my Mind Accelerator book, and am going to start using that this week, try to boost my reading speed.
I'll keep posting my mind maps here as soon as they're finished, hope it actually does help me study. In any case, drawing is fun :)

2004-02-07T14:20:00.000-05:00

Here's the Mind Map.

2004-02-07T02:31:00.000-05:00

Wow, 30 comments! What fun.
Although, probably 25 of them were by me and my family :p...but who cares :)
So, been doing some reading (duh), first I checked out the Mind Maps book. Before starting, I duly parked my sense of logic and scientific reasoning behind my ear so I could at least attempt to accept this book at face value and not get lost in analysing and criticizing everything that did not stand up to my standards of correctness. I think I managed that to a certain point, allowing myself to gather what I felt was important from the book and dismiss all the rest. Mainly, what bugs me about books like this is that they are attempting to appeal to the Wow! factor. "The infinite associative power of the brain!", this phrase was repeated at least 20 times, if not more. In addition to this, there are all sorts of unfounded statements and categorizations that are not rationalized. However, I did make an attempt to use the technique, I did the practice examples and I actually created my own first Mind Map from scratch for a paper I'm researching called "Deixis in Narrative" (I have no idea what that means :p) I was going to load a photo of the Mind Map onto my web server and show you, but the server is down at the moment. I do think that making this mind map helped me understand and better establish the article in my memory. The only problem is, I spent hours doing it. I'm too much of a perfectionist, even though my skills in the fine arts are not that great :)
I also started reading "How to practice the way to a meaningful life", by Dalai Lama. Hmm, I can understand the merit of his way, and the buddhist way...but I'm not really sure it's for me...nevertheless, I'm going to finish the book and definitely make an honest attempt at introducing this way of thinking into my life. However it did spark an interesting (and yet unsettling) line of though in my mind. Why does one get angry? Is it just a chemical reaction in the brain? Does that mean, since we can get angry over mere words, that we have been conditioned (by ourselves, parents, surroundings) to get angry over certain concepts? Can someone be conditioned from birth to feel no anger? Would such a person be a better person? Further, does this mean that one can be conditioned to feel no emotion whatsoever? Maybe emotion is an instability, a flaw in the creation of man. What does emotion have to do with the continuation of the human species? Love does not (according to base definitions) contribute, only lust, and per definition, lust is not an emotion but mereley another state of being, such as sleep. So if one is stripped of emotion, then the purpose of life can no longer be "happiness" (the ubiquitous answer to the proverbial question) for that is an emotion. Thus there is no purpose other than procreation? This would coincide with findings showing that the human body is not designed to last longer than 30 years, and that more men show traits of "aimlessness" than women (possibly supporting the theory that women have a drive to be mothers and stay mothers, ergo a single long-term goal, while men have a drive to sow their seeds, multiple short-term goals).
Whew! So you can see where my mind led me, down the rabbit hole and back again (I hope).
Now I see why some people are calling my blog "Personality crisis in the US" :)
Anyway, til hamingju Berglind mín (og Júlli) með trúlofunina :) Ég er óendanlega hamingjusamur fyrir ykkar hönd.

2004-02-03T02:15:00.000-05:00

Something strange is happening to my sleep cycle. I am now sleeping for about 2 - 4 hours every 12 hours. I made a decision a couple of days back to just sleep when I was tired and not to force myself to sleep if I were not. Ergo, not to conform unecessarily to the 8 hour chunk one is "supposed" to get. I also forced myself to fall asleep on my back with my arms by my sides, not on my side or my stomach. In every case, I have woken up in the same position. I think this must have some effect.
Over the next couple of months I'm going to be reading and practicing all sorts of relaxation techniques and meditation and this change is nothing but positive that those techniques will be successul and will have a beneficiary effect on my well-being. I told my friend Svanur about this stuff. He just shook his head (electronically, seeing he is in another continent) and said "Freysi's gone New Age". Well, maybe I have. If that's what it takes for me to feel content, get rid of my migraines, and be healthy, then so be it. ( I write as I stuff my face with pizza and drink coke ).
Mamma just sent me a bunch of reeeaally cool books, on the brain and headaches and synchronicity and the musicians mind. I can't wait to read them :D The nerdy blog is on it's way, I'm working on the setup as we speak (wherein "speak" is defined as the way in which we communicate using the blog-comment setup :p).
I've had a steady stream of packages arriving ever since I myself arrived. It's loads of fun :) And there are more to come! I have my processor fan/heatsink arriving today, my webcam next week, and two more shipments of books next week also, wúhúú!
And all my spare energy goes to Jóhann. Good luck.

2004-02-01T18:25:00.000-05:00

I just got the news that a friend of mine had an aneurysm.
I haven't heard much, just that he was working out last friday and fainted. Was unconscious for a couple minutes and after he woke up he had a headache and poor vision. They went to the hospital where the aneurysm was detected and he went into surgery the next morning. They determined that it was unsafe to remove it and sent him to Stockholm for more analysis. I haven't heard any more, but he and his family have set up a blogsite so we can follow the course of events. I added a link on the top of my list to the left. So check it out and leave a comment of support in his guestbook if you like, I'm sure they will appreciate it.
It's a cliché, but I'm gonna say it anyway...this kind of puts things into perspective...

2004-01-30T00:42:00.000-05:00

I have my new fridge!
What a relief, don't have to put up with the disgusting, never-been-cleaned fridge in the kitchen. Don't have to put up with Dan drinking my juice and eating my food. Don't have to put up with Binh throwing my food away. Now all I need is my own drawers for cutlery, my own kitchen sink and my own toilet and I'm set. Hmm... maybe I should just move :p Anyway, the fridge is pretty nice, just big enough for me (about 2 foot cube). I'll have to update the pictures sometime soon.
To continue whining, I managed to do something to both my feet while walking in the snow. Well, first it was just my left foot, then that went away and then it was just my right foot. Then while walking and sparing my right foot, with all my weight on my left foot, something happened to that too....so there I was, sitting at home with both feet screaming bloody murder at me. I could barely get to the kitchen it was so painful. I have no idea what I did, but I figured the more I could stay off my feet, the better. Just so happened I only had to skip one class today, and then I don't have a class until 3:30 on tuesday. And I've already done my food shopping so I'm set for now. It's getting better, but it'll take longer to completely heal.
So I've just been sitting in front of my computer, reading, taking breaks to watch Sopranos (season 4) and Alias (season 1). Been catching up on my downloading, there's a bunch of stuff that I'm behind on (ahh the important things), ER, Stargate, Smallville, Futurama, Family Guy, First Wave......and a whole lot more :p
The stuff I've been reading is starting to make more and more sense. Whether I can actually make enough coherent statements about it to seem intelligent remains to be seen, although I already had one meeting with John Salasin to discuss things. That went well, but I only did about 20% of the talking. I'm actually thinking about setting up another blogsite to discuss my research, with links to all the articles and the people taking part and stuff. A site where I can spend a lot of time discussing the things in detail without losing some of my readers ;) A site for us nerds, and aspiring nerds :)
Am thinking about getting a DVD burner, seems they only cost about $80 I can get disks for less than a dollar each. I thought about this as I was looking at this website. Turns out that Tos knows how to decrypt official DVDs to copy them. And with netflix I can get loads of DVDs rented for not so much money. Hmmmm... interestingly enough, what's deterring me is not my sense of morality and about breaking the law and such, instead it's my collector's impulse. I always love to own things, like books and DVDs. I can't figure out whether "owning" a copied DVD without the cover and official stuff will satisfy my personal needs (nota bene, the quality of the copies is perfect).
So this is my life, eat (made easier with the within-arm's-length-minifridge), sleep, read, download, blog. The only times I actually go out are when people say, "hey Freysi, let's go out". And ya know what? I'm fine with that.

2004-01-26T19:14:00.000-05:00

Went to a party saturday night. Well, party is not quite the right word...more of a "gathering". It was Dave's birthday and a handful of his friends were meeting to drink a bit and hang out. So when I get there, I see a couple of faces I recognized, Kendra (who has a yoga class at school) Adam, (the guy at the desk beside mine) and Amy (a girl I met on the first day of school last semester and then lost touch with her). So that was an ok evening. We spent most of it playing some word association game called Apples to Apples. It's a fun game...for a little while...we played for like 3 hours...:| Amy's husband turned out to be the type that makes a lot of jokes, also directed at people he doesn't know, like me. For some reason that annoys me. I have no problem with people making jokes about me, and usually laugh with them. But I definitely feel that you have to know the person you're joking about, at least to some extent. It's the same way with people who are overly friendly, I mean, they just met you and they act like you've been best buds for years?! It's superficial and just plain annoying. I guess this is the main reason why I get annoyed at americans, because this is the way they act (most of them) and I've been conditioned to immediately connect this behavior with people that I don't like. I guess I just have to get over it.
went grocery shopping on sunday, all by myself. Figured I'd walk up the grocery store and take a cab or bus back. So it's about 3 miles to the store, a good walk, not too bad. I get there and buy about 50 pounds worth of food. Then I get to the bus stop and realize I don't have any change. Ah the world of credit cards! I looked around for taxis, didn't see one (didn't really expect to see taxis cruising along route 1 anyway), and said "fuckit" and walked home with 25 pounds in each hand.
I'm never doing that again.
My arms are dead. My elbows are sore, probably pulled something, my shoulders are shredded, and my back is aching. But on the flip side, I'm not hungry anymore. I also managed to do something to my hip and my left foot (hyuck), so I decided to rest at home today instead of doing stuff. Turns out the University was closed so lucky me.
The TV is broken so Dan is looking around for a good deal for a new TV. He wants a 37 inch flat screen, preferably HDTV. I'm sure he'll come around when he sees the prices for those TVs.

2004-01-23T20:16:00.000-05:00

Jæja, þá er best að skipta yfir í enskuna.
Well, here I am back in the USofA. You know what the wierd thing is? That it isn't wierd. I'm feeling fine, much different from my first few days in september. Þóra picked me up at the airport and gave me some money (takk Þóra mín!). Since then, I've just been hanging out here and doing nothing. Well that's not true. I've already spent almost $300 on the internet. I bought my own little fridge, an electric space heater (gotten so used to the one we had at home, I figured it was a must-have), my books for school, and a webcam/microphone. So soon you'll all be able to see my stupid grinning face online :)
Just cooked my first tv dinner. I was actually pleasantly surprised. It was chicken with mashed potatoes and corn. Tasted pretty good! :) And it was cheap, $3-4.
The only thing I've actually done here, besides watching Dragon Ball Z, is read "Dude, Where's My Country?" And I have to say, I was shocked. If only 10% of what Michael Moore says in this book is true, America is really screwed. One important point he does make though, is that the problem doesn't lie with the American people, they are mostly liberal, while the government is mostly conservative. Anyway, I'm not going to lecture about this, you should all just read the book. However, I will mention one thing. Moore wants Bush out of the presidency, and who does he want in his place?
OPRAH!
Oprah for President! I like that :)

2004-01-21T08:55:00.000-05:00

Ég vil byrja á því að þakka Tino, Tiny og Johnny G. fyrir ótrúlega magnað kvöld.
Drengirnir kíktu í heimsókn til mín í gærkvöldið í kringum 10 leytið. Ætlunin var að drekka eitt stykki koníaksflösku sem ég hafði fengið í útskriftargjöf frá bróðir pabba. Nú þar sem ég drekk ekki koníak, og koníak gengur strákunum í æðum, þá lá beint við að gefa þessum drengjum lögginn. Við sátum upp í stofu, spjallandi um himingeima og kvenfólk, gáfur og vitleysinga, MH og forna drauga, og athyglisbrest (sem, by the way, Stefán er með, big-time). Margur maðurinn fékk að kynnast hvössum hnífi samræðna okkar, og kannski best að fólkið hafi ekki í raun verið á staðnum, enda er það besti tími til að ræða það :) Það hafa örugglega margir verið með hiksta þetta kvöld.
Pabbi hringdi í gemsann minn svona um 2 leytið og skammaði okkur fyrir hávaða, enda þurfti hann að vakna snemma, og biðst ég hér með afsökunar á því. Þá færum við okkur bara niður í kjallara.
Þegar hér var að komnu máli var búið að éta mestann ostinn, helminginn af ólívunum, slatta af nammi, og koníaksflaskan orðin hálf. Þá hófst seinni partur kvöldsins, sem einkenndist af tónlistarnostalgíu dauðans. Sátum niðri og fórum í gegnum tónlistarsöguna frá sixties til nineties, kveiktum meira að segja á popptíví til að hlusta á nýja tjilli pebbers lagið, sem er nokk flott.
Þegar flaskan loksins kláraðist hófst endirinn á kvöldinu sem einkenndist af Stefáni....rosalega fullum :) Mjög fyndið, en jafnframt mjög hættulegt, eins og bera má vitnist á mér þar sem ég er með gsm-síma-lagaðan marblett á brjóstkassanum. Go figure. En hann einkenndist líka af því að ég og Johnny (aðallega, og Tiny líka smá) ræddum tilvist Guðs og afstöður okkar allra til þess (þar sem, nota bene, ég er 'unaffiliated', þ.e. tek enga afstöðu). Mjög merkilegt, og gaman að því leytinu að ég "vann" allar umræður þar sem ég var nánast edrú en þeir allir rúllandi.
Svo var drengjunum skóflað útúr húsi uppúr 7 að morgni, þar sem föstu mennirnir höfðu fengið sms frá konunum, svona nett að minna þá á hversu brjálaðar þær voru.
Í stuttu máli, snilldarkvöld, og fátt annað sem maður getur beðið um sem kveðjukvöld (vantaði náttla Mosa, en við skáluðum fyrir hann, var með okkur í anda).
Nú er ég að fara eftir rétt rúmlega sólarhring.
Magnað. Hvert fór tíminn? Ég náði held ég að hitta alla sem ég ætlaði mér, nema Andrési og Helgu, og náttúrulega nýja barnið hennar Lindu (sem ég held að sé ekki ennþá komið?), og Dóru. (Ætla nú að reyna að hitta á hana Dóru á eftir) Hef á tilfinningunni að mér hafi tekist að ljúka einum þætti í lífi mínu sem var miður skemmtilegur. Þáttur sem hefði átt að ljúka rétt áður en ég fór út í fyrsta lagi en af einhverri fávisku og blindni í mér teygðist frá Íslandi yfir í USA, með aðstoð tækninnar (djöflatól! *krump*). Í raun þurfti ég fátt að gera til að ljúka þessum þætti, þetta lá alfarið í hendur á annari manneksju sem vann starfið sitt mjög vel, þ.e. án þess að gera neitt, og í raun VEGNA þess að sú manneskja gerði ekki neitt. (Rooosalega finnst mér gaman að vera óljós með mínar sögur :) En þið sem þekkið til vitið væntanlega nákvæmlega hvað ég meina).
Mér var bannað um daginn að gefast upp á Íslenskum stelpum.
Hehe, verst að sú stelpa sem bannaði mér var ekki nógu skotin í mér til að hrifsa mig upp svona rétt áður en maður hverfur á brott :) En jújú, ég er nú alveg sammála, maður má nú ekki gefast upp á þeim. Ætli ég verði ekki bara að koma mér í samband við Íslendingafélagið þarna úti, og vona að það séu einhverjar fallegar, lausar stelpur þar...(varla líklegt, en sakar ekki að hafa samband). Annars, eins og ég sagði hér áður, næsta önn verður ekki um stelpur, It's about me. Gamla klisjan sko 'ef ég get ekki sáttur í mínum eigin félagsskap, hvernig get ég ætlast til þess að einhver annar yrði sáttur í mínum félagsskap?' 'Love thyself and thou shalt be loved' og allt það. Ætti kannski að fara á sjálfshjálparnámskeið while I'm at it og læra að faðma tré. Já og svo get ég skotið mig í hausinn.
En án gríns, þá ætla ég að nota næstu önn, og jafnvel næstu, til þess að hugsa vel um sjálfan mig, koma mér almennilega í form for once, og láta mér líða vel. Ég hugsa að ég reyni líka að vera minna onlæn. Eins og ég met ótrúlega mikils allan þann stuðning sem ég fékk frá mínum vinum meðan ég var úti og miserable, þá er samt msn ótrúlegur tímaþjófur. Ég hugsa að ég reyni aðeins að halda aganum, annaðhvort að merkja mig busy oftar (fólk er yfirleitt mjög kurteist og talar ekki við "busy" fólk á msn) eða bara vera offline. Þannig að ef þið náið ekki í mig á msn, sendiði bara email, nú eða kommentið hér.
Allavega, þetta verður síðasta bloggið á Fróni, og væntanlega síðasta á fyrra móðurmálinu, best að skipta yfir á seinna móðurmálið.
Já! Og allir sem lesið þetta, ef þið eruð með síðu sem þið viljið að ég linki á, skiljiði linkinn eftir í þ.t.g. svæði í kommentakerfinu og ég redda því :)
Sjálfshjálparfreysi.

2004-01-16T11:46:00.000-05:00

Síðustu tveir dagar hafa verið vægast sagt stórmerkilegir.
Semsagt, eins og þið vitið nú örugglega flest, við unnum
forsetaverðlaun nýsköpunarsjóðs. En ég má nú aðeins til með að rekja
gang mála.
Dagurinn í gær byrjaði semsagt á því að við Jóhann mætum í Ísland í
bítið til þess að ræða nett um verkefnið okkar. Með okkur í þættinum
var Berglind, stelpan sem týndi hreindýraspörðin uppá heiði í sumar.
Hennar verkefni var einmitt eitt af hinum 3 sem voru tilnefnd. Hún má
nú eiga það, henni tókst að uppgötva þarna nýja lífveru, og þykir mér
það bara stórmerkilegt. Hún fær meira að segja líklegast að skíra hana
í höfuð sér (þótt ég vildi nú ekki hafa orm sem er skírður í höfði
mér...Freysill :p) Þátturinn gengur ágætlega fyrir sér þótt ég hafi nú
verið aðeins stressaður (sagði orðið "semsagt" í fjórða hverju
orði...semsagt), spyrjendur góðir og áhugasamir. Jóhann vó ágætlega
upp á móti mér, enda óvenju yfirvegaður og orðheppinn drengur. Ég
vorkenndi þó aðeins Berglindi vegna þess að hann Fjalar nýtti sér
tækifærið og gerði nú aðeins létt grín að hennar verkefni ("hvað græðir
maður á því að týna hreindýraskít?") og líka vegna þess að áhugi
spyrjendanna var greinilega á okkar verkefni.
Að því loknu fór ég uppí HR að hitta Björn Þór og fara aðeins yfir
glærurnar fyrir fyrirlesturinn. Ekki þar mikið að segja, endaði meira
bara í spjalli hjá okkur. Heilsaði síðan uppá nýjum prófessor við HR,
Yngvi Björnsson. Lærður í gerfigreindum, og ekki nóg með það, þá er
hann með specialty í tölvuleikjum! Snillingur. Ég spjallaði við hann
í svona klukkutíma og bætti þar með nýjum manni inná kontakt listann
minn.
Kíkti svo heim og vann aðeins í fyrirlestrinum til svona 3, en þá
byrjaði maður að gera sig myndarlegann fyrir frú Dorrit ;) Var sóttur
rétt fyrir 4 og við kíktum á kaffihúsið í hamraborginni, við
drengirnir. Fengum okkur einn öl og aðeins að peppa okkur upp áður en
haldið var á leið á Bessastaði. Ólafur mætti á borgina á 5 milljóna
króna lancruiser tengda-afa síns og við allir í okkar fínasta pússi,
helvíti fögur sjón ;)
Þegar við mætum á Bessastaði eru tveir bílar þar fyrir utan þar sem
fólk situr í og virðist vera að hlýja sér. Okkur dettur náttúrulega
ekki í hug að pukrast útí bíl og bara vöðum inn á herra forseta
(bílfólkið fylgdi eftir, vildu greinilega ekki vera fyrstir á staðinn).
Gaman að koma inn á Bessastaði eftir að hafa spilað þar fyrir utan ár
eftir ár í endalausar forseta heimsóknir frá hinum og þessum löndunum.
Lúðrasveitin Svanur hefur sko alltaf tekið á móti útlenskum forsetum og
spilað þjóðsöngvana þeirra. Það eru sko til margir asnalegir
þjóðsöngvar skal ég nú ykkur segja. En merkilegt nokk, eins flott og
Bessastaðir eru, þá er engin leið að heyra í næsta manni tala. Það
glymur svo rosalega að maður kinkar bara kolli og brosar. Nú skilur
maður hvernig Íslendingum kemur svo vel við öðrum þjóðum.
Okkur var allavega hópað saman fyrst inn í eitt herbergi, svo þegar
fleiri mæta og það verður of lítið inn í næsta. Og mergðin sem mætti,
það er naumast! Hélt að þetta yrði bara nýsköpunarsjóður,
forsetaembættið og svo tilnefndir. En neinei, allskonar fólk (sem ég
veit ekkkert hverjir eru) kom og tók í hendina á manni og muldraði
eitthvað.
Loksins er opnað inn í salinn og þá byrjar fólk að labba inn, og Ólafur
og Dorrit standa þar hlið við hlið og taka í hendina og heilsa fólki.
Fyndið samt, hann Óli(okkar óli, ekki forsetinn) labbar fyrstur inn af
okkur og fer í kjölfar landlæknis. Hann sér að læknir tekur í hendina
á manninum sem stendur í dyrunum (líklegast þjónn). Þá náttúrulega
tekur Óli bara í hendina á honum líka. Og við allir sem fylgjum á
eftir. Svipurinn á manninum var alveg óborganlegur. Þetta hefur verið
bara einhver kunningi landlæknis, en hann hefur grætt á því að hann
fékk að taka í hendina á öllum sem komu eftir honum í röðina ;)
Því næst heldur forsetinn ræðu. Þessi maður er alveg með ólíkindum
góður ræðumaður. Ekki eitt hik, ekki eitt rangt orð, ekki ein hreyfing
sem var ekki fullkomnleg. Og engin blöð. Hinn fullkomni ræðumaður.
Nokkrar ræður eftir það, blablabla, takk fyrir peningana megum við fá
fleiri og allt það. Síðan eru verkefnin kynnt. Merkilegt nokk, þegar
verkefni okkar er kynnt þá brýst bara út kliður um salinn. Og svo
þegar þessi setning (sem ég reyndar gaf frá mér í símaviðtali) heyrist
"Gerir söngelskum sem tóndaufum kleift..." þá brýst bara út hlátur.
Snilld. Síðan er öllum hópunum boðið fram og viðurkenningar veittar,
plögg og blóm og taka í hendina á forseta, og við stöndum þarna eins og
þvörur með hendur fullar og bíðum eftir niðurstöðuna, og vei! við
vinnum og fáum glæsilegan glerhlunk í gjöf.
Já og 100.000 kr ávísun.
Svo hefst minglið.
Það er nú eitthvað sem ég hef aldrei kunnað. Rölta um og spjalla við
fólk sem ég þekki ekki neitt um hluti sem ég hef engan áhuga á. En
fólkið í kringum okkur voru greinilega sérfræðingar í því þannig að við
þurftum ekki að hafa mikið fyrir því. Fengum nú blessunarlega smá pásu
þegar Hanna María (frá nýsköpunarsjóði) dró okkur til hliðar því
kastljós vildi tala við okkur og fá okkur í þáttinn seinna um kvöldið.
Jahá, ég talaði við hana í símanum, hana Svanhildi (heitir hún það
ekki?), og þvílíka ágengu frekju hef ég nú sjaldan talað við. Hún
vildi sko fá að sjá græjuna í kastljósinu. Ég útskýrðu nú bara rólega
fyrir henni að þetta væri frumgerð og það væri nú ekki mikið að sjá.
Það tók alveg korter að róa kellingu niður :)
Síðan var bara fram og spjallað við alla, nýja menntamálaráðherra,
fólkið úr dómnefndinni, hina keppendurna. Hápunktar þess voru nett
spjall við formann Rannís sem sagði bara "Hlakka til að fá umsókn frá
ykkur", og svo þegar rektor HÍ óskaði okkur til hamingju með frekar
súrum svip.
Því næst fer ég heim að klára fyrirlesturinn á meðan Óli og Gunni kíkja
í Kastljósið.(við skiptum því á milli okkar, ég og Jóhann fórum í
Ísland í bítið um morguninn) Það er nú eitthvað sem þið ættuð að redda
ykkur á teipi og kíkja á. Þvílíkir snilldarpunktar sem duttu úr
tvíeykinu. Óli setti bara tóninn við fyrstu spurningu.
"Jæja strákar, til hamingju. Kom þetta ykkur á óvart?"
Smá þögn.
"Nei."
Snillingur.
Svo var bara pantað borð og við skelltum okkur á Grillið á efstu hæð
Hótel Sögu ásamt Birni.
Þessi staður er alveg magnaður. Fengum hringborð útí horni með þvílíkt
vjú af höfuðborginni. Ég er bara á því að við höfum fengið besta
borðið á svæðinu. Sátum aðeins inn á koníaksstofu fyrir matinn og
fengum okkur í glas (nota bene, ég ákvað að ég yrði nú að fá mér aðeins
í tánna í tilefni dagsins). Eftir þennan mikla dag þá vorum við allir
samhuga, við vildum fá sérval kokksins. Og ekki sáum við nú eftir því.
Þetta byrjaði allt á því að við fengum smá brauð á borðið ásamt litlum
diskum með olíu og öðrum diskum með kryddblöndu. Kryddblandan hét
"deku" (stafsetning?) og kom frá Norður-Afríku. Birni tókst að giska á
3 af 4 tegundum, en þetta innihélt sesamfræ, svört sinnepsfræ,
pistachio hnétur og kúmen.
Því næst fáum við appetizer, sem var lamba carpaccio. Ég er nú
yfirleitt ekki mikið fyrir hrátt kjöt, en þetta var alveg yndislegt.
Með því er serverað hvítt vín, sem hét Montes. Björn er nú amatör
vínsmakkari þannig að hann fékk að sjá um smökkunina. Eins er ég ekki
mikið fyrir hvítt vín, en þetta var algjört nammi.
Forrétturinn var þrískiptur. Humarfrauðhringur með laxi inní og
hörpudiskur í miðjunni. Skelfiska canneloni með sítrónusósu.
Tómatsulta með ýsuroði.
Síðan kemur millirétturinn, (og þá var skipti yfir í rauðvín, man ekki
nafnið en namminammmi) pönnusteiktur þorskur ofaná sex-sveppa frauði og
ætiþistla gratín. Svo kom loks aðalrétturinn.
Dádýr.
Eina kjötið sem ég hef smakkað betra en dádýr er hreindýrakjöt.
Þvílíka ljúffenga kjötið maður. Mamma hans bamba lá ofaná sveppa ragú
(svona pínu litlir, heilir, franskir sveppir). Gulrótarturn sat við
hliðina, ofaní sósunni lá sæt-kartöflu mauk, og loks var djúpsteiktur
Amembert (nota bene, ekki camembert) ostur, sem er blár ostur (ekki
gráðostur) sem lá ofan á einhverju svona jello ekkvað, sem ég veit ekki
hvað var, en var samt sem áður ljúffengt.
Með eftirmatnum fengum við púrtvín. Skyr, blandað við muldar
vanillustangir, með kaffifrauði ofaná. Ís (gat ómögulega greint
bragðið, en einhverskonar súkkulaði) ofaná litla en óendanlega þétta
súkkulaðiköku.
Eftir það fengum við okkur kaffi og koníak (reyndar ekkert koníak fyrir
mig ;))
Þarf nú varla að segja ykkur hversu góður þessi matur var.
Hver einasti réttur var borinn fram á mismunandi diski, og alltaf skipt
um hnífapör. Þjónustan á þessum stað var ótrúleg. Þjónninn útskýrði
alltaf hverja máltíð fyrir sig, en hann beið rólegur eftir því að við
hættum að tala til þess. Stóð einu sinni kyrr í 5 mínútur. Ég er
eiginlega handviss um að hann hefði staðið þarna endalaust hefði hann
þurft þess. Á meðan Björn smakkaði vínin þá hallaði hann sér niður og
hélt flöskunni fram svo maður gæti lesið á miðanum. Og hann hló með
öllum lélegu bröndurunum okkar. Ég hefði nú viljað tipsa hann en hann
var farinn þegar við loksins dröttuðumst heim um hálf 2 leytið.
Var nú samt skemmtilegast að sjá svipinn á þjóninum þegar við reyndum
að borga með 100.000 kr ávísun. Kom reyndar í ljós að þeir gætu ekki
tekið við henni því reikningurinn okkar var ekki nógu nálægt þessari
upphæð. Einungis 62.000 kr. Pælið í því! Þvílíkur matur, þvílík
þjónusta, 5 manns...bara 60.000 kall! Við gætum farið á stað eins og
Laugaás, sem er bara skrefinu fyrir ofan skyndibitamat, borðað steik og
drukkið rauðvín og hæglega komist upp í 30-40.000 kall fyrir 5 manns.
Maður verður að gera þetta oftar.
Vaknaði hress og kátur í morgun, alveg til í að halda fyrirlestur.
Kíkti upp í skóla þar sem beið mín viðtal frá rás 2. Reddaði því og
rústaði síðan þessum fyrirlestri :D
HR gaf okkur gjafir og heiðraði okkur, og fólk virtist almennt bara
vera sátt við fyrirlesturinn minn og skemmta sér nokk vel. Þó þorði
enginn að prófa græjuna ;)
HR bauð okkar síðan í hádegismat á Hotel Holt þar sem fengum ekki
næstum eins glæsilega þjónustu og á Grillinu! :) Samt fínt, fékk
lauksúpu og lambalundir. Hinir strákarnir fengu sér hreindýrapate í
tilefni verkefni hennar Berglindar ;) Dr. Gísli Hjálmtýsson kíkti með
okkur í mat og spjallaði aðeins við okkur, aðeins að pumpa okkur um
framhaldið og svona. Því miður þá var Jóhann heima veikur (ekki
þunnur, veikur) og gat ekki verið með, en hann var með í huga.
Svo bara heim þar sem ég reyndi að sofna en gat það ekki, renndi frekar
í að skrifa þetta monsterblogg.
Allavega, gott að þetta er búið.

2004-01-15T14:08:00.000-05:00

Við unnum!

2004-01-14T16:46:00.000-05:00

Húff, ég er þreyttur skal ég ykkur segja.
Þessir síðustu dagar, og þeir næstu framundan hafa verið alveg helter-skelter, úr einu í annað. Allt út af einni sakleysislegri tilnefningu. Mætti halda að mar væri bara orðinn seleb. Viðtal hjá mogganum, viðtal í HR, viðtal frá nýsköpunarsjóði, mæta í Ísland í Bítið (á morgun klukkan korter í 9 ;)), mæta í Kastljós (líka á morgun, kannski), byrja að skrifa nýja skýrslu á ensku til birtingar út í heimi, og undirbúa og flytja fyrirlestur um efnið á föstudaginn (klukkan 11 í HR ;)).
Úff.
I just want it all to go away.
Mig langar ekki í alla þessa athygli. Fólk virðist ekki trúa mér þegar ég segi það "Hvaða hvaða, þú fílar þetta víst, ég veit það ;)", en svona er það nú, ég fíla bara að vera í friði með mitt and do my thing. Viðurkenning frá vinum og kollegum er alveg nóg fyrir mig. En það yrði nú samt asnalegt að segja fréttamönnunum að troða myndavélina sína where the sun don't shine. Þannig að ég læt hafa mig út í þetta. :S
Ekkert annað að frétta merkilegt. Kvennamálin hjá mér eru algjörlega död, (kannski bara fínt, og í anda við "Versló"-áramótaheitið mitt) ég er búinn að fá allar bækurnar sem ég pantaði og get því byrjað að lesa á fullu eftir fyrirlesturinn á föstudaginn. Er nú reyndar nokk spenntur fyrir því, enda spennandi efni í þessum bókum. Hvernig við (og tölvur) munum hluti. Kem til með að halda nokkra pistla um þau mál hér í vetur ;)
Jú eitt! Ég er búinn að ákveða að ég verði orðinn ríkur fyrir fimmtugt, þannig að ég geti hætt að vinna, og leikið mér allan daginn að því sem mig langar til að gera. Vííí, gott plan?

2004-01-12T14:54:00.000-05:00

Félag fyllikalla var nú aldeilis ekki par sátt við mína ákvörðun að draga mig í hlé.
Kíkti út á lífið á laugardegi, ætlaði í leikhús en það datt uppfyrir vegna óviðráðanlegra orsaka. Fór í staðinn í ein þrjú partý. Fyrst til Mikkó, þar sem maðurinn átti alnæmi, orðinn ógissla gamall (veit ekkert hversu :p). Fínt það, nema ég var eitthvað ótrúlega rólegur, ekki í neinu stuði. Reyndi að spjalla aðeins við Matta og Tóta, en svo byrjuðu þeir á boltanum og þá flúði ég. Spjallaði aðeins við Tótlu og Tótu, en þær voru í svo góðum gír að ég vildi ekkert vera þessi leiðinlegi edrú gaur sem dregur alla niður með sér (verð að halda áfram að þykjast drekka á djamminu, þá lætur fólk mann í friði, annars er alltaf verið að spyrja og reyna að troða í manni brennivín). Kíkti niður í bæ á Svansmeðlimi eftir sýninguna þeirra og tjúttaði aðeins með þeim og leikurunum úr Meistaranum og Margarítunni (fullt af sætum stelpum þar ;)). Skrapp í stutta heimsókn til Gunnhildar fiðlu sem átti líka ammli (reyndar fyrir jól, en gaf henni samt ammlisgjöf, litla flösku af freyðivíni sem heitir Verdi) og fór svo aftur í svanspartí. Enduðum með því að kíkja aðeins niðrí bæ þar sem ég mundi að ég væri edrú og það væri kalt og að ég meika ekki reykinn útum allt þegar ég er ekki fullur. Þannig að ég fór heim.
Gat samt ekki sofnað fyrr en um 8 leytið um morguninn....dapurlegt. Reyndi að glápa á leiðinlega bíómynd, en það dugði ekki til, (varð reyndar stórhneykslaður, alveg í enda myndarinnar þá skiptist útsendingin allt í einu yfir á barnaefni! Myndin var leíðinleg, en ég brjálast þegar ég fæ ekki að vita allann söguþráðinn. Hehe, I guess I need closure :p) Endaði með því að sofna þegar ég fór að pæla í því hvort ég ætti að vaka í alla nótt.
Fór í viðtal uppí HR í dag (skrýtið að sjá aftur gamla skólann) fyrir tilnefninguna okkar. Þar var sæt stelpa/kona sem tók á móti mér og spurði mig spjörunum úr. Svoldið fyndið, kom í ljós að hún hefði verið í tónó "kynslóð" á undan mér, þannig að við fórum aðeins að spjalla um hina og þessa. Þá datt eitt komment út úr henni....(vorum að tala um fiðlustelpu sem heitir Álfheiður og er einu ári eldri en ég) "Já Álfheiður, ég man eftir henni, þekkti hana samt ekki, hún var miklu yngri en ég." Smá augngot á mig. "Ekki MIKLU yngri, bara smá."
Yup. Still got it ;)
Hitti nokkra gamla drauga í HR, alltaf gaman að spjalla við fólk úr fortíð sinni. Tók síðan eitt rölt um gangana, aðeins að komast inní gamla fílinginn. Rakst á nokkra kennara, en ég held að þeir hafi ekki þekkt mig (eða þeir hafi hundsað mig ;))
Er núna bara á fullu að skrifa skýrslu og fyrirlestur um verkefnið okkar í fyrrasumar, verð með fyrirlestur á föstudaginn næstkomandi (líklegast). Fyrir utan það, þá er ég bara að lesa. Lesalesalesa....úff. Greip reyndar í eina hraðlestrarbók um daginn og prófaði mig. Kemur í ljós að ég les 353 orð á mínútu. Meðaltal fyrir nemendur er milli 200 og 400 yfirleitt frekar í lægri kantinum. Þannig að ég les í raun ekkert rooosalega hratt. Var reyndar með 87% skilning sem er víst voða fínt. Prófaði mig aðeins áfram með smá tækni og hækkaði mig upp í 520 orð á mínútu en þá datt skilningurinn niður í um 50% Hmm, verð að vinna aðeins í því. En ég skil ekki af hverju ég hef ekki pælt í hraðlestri áður? Ég er stöðugt að kvarta um hversu mikið ég þarf að lesa og mig langar til að lesa. Af hverju ekki reynda að þrefalda, ef ekki fjórfalda lestrarhraðann minn. Dísus, ef ég vissi að ég gæti klárað heila skáldsögu á 2 tímum, þá myndi ég miklu frekar lesa en að horfa á bíómynd :) Þetta er allavega nýja stefnan mín, að koma lestrarhraðanum upp í 1000 orð á mínútu fyrir sumarið og halda samt milli 80 og 90% skilning.
En já....sumt fólk skilur maður bara hreinlega ekki. Hvað gengur á í hausnum á þeim? Oft sem maður finnst eitthvað vera svo einfalt og frábært og maður skilur ekki hvers vegna aðrir geta ekki séð það sama. Maður þykist meira að segja geta SÉÐ þegar aðrir eru að blekkja sjálfan sig. Er maður þá ekki bara að blekkja sjálfan sig?
Freysi, Master of (self-)Deception

2004-01-07T20:34:00.000-05:00

Hmmm, allt of margt sem manni langar til að skrifa um núna.
Fyrst er kannski ráð að ræða drykkjuhefðir mínar. Nú hef ég drukkið frekar lítið síðustu 6 mánuðina, farið á fylleri þrisvar sinnum úti og einungis tvisvar sinnum hérna heima yfir hátíðirnir. Ég var meira að segja edrú á gamlárs. Ein ástæðan fyrir þessu var einfaldlega sú að ég meikaði ekki að vera þunnur í mínu fríi. En önnur ástæða, ein sem virðist hafa verið staðfest í dag, er að ég ræð bara ekki lengur við áfengi, líkamslega. Ég fór út í gær, hitti nokkra vini, Stulla, Svöfu, Villa og Úlf. Drakk þar eina fjóra bjóra og þótti það ágætt kvöld, ekkert of mikið, en samt nóg til að gera mann léttann og fínan og nóg til að svæfa mann frekar snemma (fór í rúmið klukkan 2 miðað við hádegi síðust vikur). Ég vakna snemma, svona um 7 leytið, til að hjálpa mömmu að sækja bílinn sem ég hafði skarplega skilið eftir niðrí bæ. Alltí fína, með smá hausverk, en fer aftur að lúlla. Vakna svo um svona 9 leytið og fer í laaaaangt bað (hiti virðist virka ágætlega fyrir mína hausverki) og ætla svo að leggja mig aftur. Nema hvað að þá byrja ég bara að æla. Og æla. Og æla. Frábært. Ég ældi eins og ég hefði drukkið heila vodkaflösku, eða 3 kippur af bjór. Rosalegt. svo fór magaverkurinn og þá tók mígrenið við. Ennþá betra. Ég lá í rúminu mínu frá 10 um morguninn til svona 9 um kvöldið með öskrandi mígreni.
Allt þetta eftir 4 bjóra, sem voru drukknir milli 21 og 2 kvöldið áður.
Héðan í frá, er eg formlega hættur að drekka. Einn bjór (eða því sem nemur) hefur sýnt sig að vera í lagi, en meira en það, þá hegnir líkaminn minn mér.
Það hefur nú ekki margt skýrst hjá mér eftir að hafa komið heim, en þó hefur nokkrum hlutum verið varpað í nýju ljósi. T.d. hef ég komist að því, í gegnum mjög stutt en lýsandi sms samtali, að ákveðin manneskja sem ég hélt að bæri hug til mín, gerir það ekki. Sömuleiðis komst ég að því, í gegnum símtali, að ákveðin manneskja sem ég hélt að bæri EKKI hug til mín, gæti hugsanlega gert það. Confused? so am I. Kannski ætti ég bara að gefast upp á þeirri fáránlegu(?) von að finna íslenska kærustu og leita bara útí heimi...ég meina ég verð þar í næstum 5 ár í viðbót. Það myndi allavega einfalda margt, þá eru færri þræðir sem binda mig Íslandi. Ég verð hérna hvort sem er bara í 2 vikur í viðbót, þannig að möguleikinn á að kynnast nýrri stelpu fer hverfandi (og reynslan segir mér að svoleiðis samband er hvort sem er dauðadæmt). Þannig að eini möguleikinn er að krækja í einhverja sem ég þekki nú þegar...hvað segiði stelpur ;);)
Hehe, þvílíkt rugl.
Hef verið að lesa mig duglega til þessa dagana (milli þess sem ég svala minni þráhyggjupersónuleika(OCD) með því að spila onlæn tölvuleiki) um allt sem við kemur rannsókninni sem ég er að fara að taka þátt í úti. Ekkert merkilegt frá því að segja nema það að mamma er farin að taka aktívan þátt í því (eins og í öllu sem við kemur okkur börnunum, þið sem þekkið mömmu vitið alveg að hún er klikkuð :), but in a good way ). Hún er búin að henda í mér endalausum bókum, flestar mjög áhugaverðar en sumar frekar slæmar, og ætla ég einmitt að segja ykkur frá einni af síðari gerðinni.
Bókin heitir "Writing as a Visual Art". Konan sem skrifar þetta er prófessor í Bologna (á ítalíu) og hefur verið að stunda rannsóknir á þessu sviði í 10 ár. Hmm, hugsar maður, þá hlýtur nú að vera eitthvað vit í þessu. Virðist vera rosalega áhugavert, að nota myndir og rúm til að aðstoða við uppbyggingu texta og skilning lesenda á textanum. Jújú, maður hefur nú pælt í þessu sjálfur, enda er það notað í tónlist, sérstaklega tilraunatónlist 20. aldar.
Strax í Preface kaflanum skaust upp viðvörunarflagg. Þar er að finna eftirfarandi línu:
"You may wonder why no bibliography follows the anthology. The reason is simple: this book presents visual techniques for writing that are totally new inventions..."
Hmm. Hmmmmmmm... Sama hversu nýtt eitthvað er, þá er það samt byggt á einhverju sem hefur komið áður. En alltígóðu, leyfi henni samt að njóta vafans.
Því miður þá er afgangurinn af bókinni borið fram á sem óvísindalegasta máta sem ég hef nokkurntímann kynnst. Staðhæfingar án undirbúnings né raka; uppgötvanir sem koma úr lausu lofti; niðurstöður sem tengjast engan vegin því sem hún hefur verið að ræða. Í stuttu máli, hrikalegt. Kubbur táknar sögu, en píramídi táknar minningu. Eins og það sé það sjálfsagðasti hlutur í heiminum. Af hverju? Engin skýring gefin. Þetta er í fyrsta skipti sem ég hef lesið eitthvað skrifað af "virtum" vísindamanni sem mér finnst bara vera sorp. Myndi varla skeina mér með þessu. Gefur mann í raun smá egó búst, því ég veit að ég gæti tekist á við þetta sama efni og gefið frá mér bók sem væri MIKLU betri.
Þið sem hafið ekki séð Love Actually, farið á hana núna. Þetta er yndisleg mynd. Ég sat á henni og var með sæluglott dauðans allan tímann. Henni tókst að breyta mér, miklum efasemdarmanni, yfir í bjartsýnis mann þegar kemur að kvennamálum. Ég sé alveg fyrir mér, í hvert skipti sem ég fæ bakslag í kvennamálum, þá geri ég bara eins og stelpurnar, fæ ég mér djúsi hammara (í staðinn fyrir ísinn sko) og horfi á þessa mynd.
Já! gleymi einu aðalatriðinu. Verkefnið sem ég og fleiri unnum að í fyrra sumar fyrir nýsköðunarsjóði hefur verið tilnefnt til forsetaverðlauna :) Þýðir beisikklý að við förum í mat á Bessastaði og tökum í hendina á forsetanum og verðum miklir menn þann 15. janúar. Magnað, finnst ykkur ekki? Fylgisti með í fjölmiðlum, það hlýtur eitthvað að koma um okkur :p
Ég strengdi áramótaheit. Ég ætla að "hætta að leyfa tjeddlingum að rugla í hausnum á mér". Hvernig lýst ykkur á? Ég verð nú að læra að vera einn, og láta mér líða vel. Ég kunni það einu sinni, en það var áður en ég kynntist hættulegra kyninu. Þessi önn verður einkennd af dugnaði í skóla, líkamsrækt, trompetleik og tölvuleikjum. Hmm...kannski ætti ég að byrja á einhverri hugleiðslu, yoga eða zen eða einhvern fjandann...ná áttum betur. Á þessum tíma að ári liðnu þá verð ég allavega komið með mína hluti á hreint...það er alveg á hreinu ;)
Ég vona að allir hafa bara átt frábært frí, og hlakki jafn mikið til næsta árs og ég. Verð hér allavega nokkrum sinnum í viku, ef ekki oftar, og ég skora á alla þá lesendur sem ekki eru með sín eigin blogg að byrja á þessu.
Gleðilegt nýtt ár.
Freysi fyrrum fyllikall.

2003-12-29T01:00:00.000-05:00

Jæja, þá eru jólin búin.
Rosalega er nú fínt að vera kominn heim....EN...(there's always a but)...margt sem gengur í gegnum hausinn á manni á svona tímum. Það sem er (kannski mjög eðlilega) fremst í huganum er hversu auðveldlega maður pirrast á fjölskyldunni. ;aður er náttúrulega búinn að venjast því að búa einn og kannski alveg skiljanlegt að maður pirrist aðeins þegar allir eru að tala í einu og fólk verður æst. En það skiptir ekki öllu...maður dílar.
Það sem er aðallega að velkjast um í hausnum á mér er tilfinningin....þegar ég var úti þá var ég með stanslausan hnút í maganum, svona spenningur (á slæman máta) eins og eitthvað væri alveg að fara að gerast. Rosalega óþægileg og lýjandi tilfinning. Ég hélt mér aðallega gangandi á því að hlakka til að komast heim um jólin. Sá fyrir mér að þá myndi allt leysast, að þessi tilfinning væri bara fjarlægð vina og vandamanna. Nú er ég kominn heim og þessi tilfinning er enn til staðar. Það er greinilegt að það er eitthvað annað á seyði á mínu bæ. Það er eins og það vanti eitthvað í líf mitt, og ég hef grun um að ég viti alveg nákvæmlega hvað það er, þótt ég vilji kannski ekki viðurkenna það. Það væri þá ekki í fyrsta sinn sem stoltið yrði manni að falli.
En þvílíkur kjáni getur maður verið að hugsa svona mikið. Ég hef sagt það áður, og segi það aftur, ef ég ætti eina ósk þá myndi ég óska mér að ég ætti svona "heimsku" takka, sem ég gæti bara ýtt á þegar ég hugsa of mikið. Ignorance is bliss.
En fyrir góða lýsingu á kjánaskap (sem á líka mjög vel við mína aðstöðu) skuluð þið tékka á bloggið hennar tótlu.

2003-12-24T12:21:00.000-05:00

Gleðileg jól öll sömul :)

2003-12-21T13:03:00.000-05:00

Úff hvað þetta eru búnir að vera skrýtnir en jafnframt merkilegir dagar.
Byrjaði strax í flugvélinni, bara sjokkið við að sjá aftur fallegar íslenskar stelpur (flugfreyjurnar) startaði þessu öllu. Sat við hliðina á einhverjum stuck-up kana með ansalegan hatt sem hann ætlaði að geyma uppí hólfin, en vildi samt ekki að hatturinn krumpaðist, og því var vesen á honum alla ferðina. Tala nú ekki um þar sem konan fyrir framan hann varð full frekar fljótt og byrjaði að troða drasli upp og skemma hattinn hans.
Ég hafði ekki sofið neitt kvöldið fyrir flugið, ætlaði að vera vel þreyttur og sofa í flugvélinni. En nei, ég sofnaði næstum á flugvellinum og barðist við að halda mér vakandi til þess að missa sko ekki af vélinni...en um leið og ég kom upp í flugvél þá bara glaðvaknaði ég (þótt ég væri geeeðveikt líkamslega þreyttur). Þannig að ég neyddist til að hlusta á rifrildið um hattinn, og hlusta á fullu konuna tala við hjónin við hliðina á sér. Skellti bara á mér heyrnartólin, hlustaði á smá klassík, og las moggann.´
Ekki lítið sem ég var hneykslaður á mogganum!
Ég ætlaði að njóta þess að detta aftur inní rútínuna mína við að lesa moggann, lesa forsíðuna, lesa aftan síðuna, flétti síðan afturábak og skoða bíó og slúðrið, enda síðan á myndasögurnar, snúpí, pínötts og ferdinand og garfíld....EN NEI! Þá er búið að skipta því öllu út fyrir þvílíku og öðru eins sorpi!! Ég varð bara reiður, og ákvað að nota moggann til að styðja við mjóbakið fyrst það gat ekki fært mér gleði og hlátur.
Gat engan veginn sofnað, horfði í staðinn á stórkostlega lélega mynd sem heitir Princess of Thieves og fjallar um dóttur Robin Hood. Hmmm... Kiera Knightly leikur hana, og svo er Malcolm McDowell sheriffinn.....hmmmmm....
Skemmti mér ágætlega við að fylgjast með fólki og giska hverjir væru kanar og hverjir íslendingar. Var nú bara helvítí góður í því líka. Og þau skipti sem ég hugsaði að þeir væru hvorugt, þá voru þetta yfirleitt aðrir skandinavíubúar... Ótrulega gaman líka að hlusta á útlendingana (sérstaklega kanana) tala um ísland og fara rangt með staðreyndir (meðalhiti, lífsmáta og svo framvegis). Ein hjón voru að fylgjast rosalega mikið með einum hópi af fólki, og konan segir við manninn "look at those people, I'm sure they are Icelandic. Look at their noses!" Þá fór ég að þreifa á mínu nefi og horfa á nefið á öllum öðrum...
Þegar við lentum var rosa snjóhríð í gangi og aldimt, og frekar flott að horfa út, því ég sat hjá vængnum og í hvert skiptið sem ljósin blikkuðu þá lýstust upp snjókornin í kring. Allir kanarnir ú-uðu af hrifningi og héldu varla vatni yfir því hversu mikið það væri að snjóa. Ég sá alveg fyrir mér að allir þeir sem voru bara að millilenda hér færu nú heim og segðu öllum að hér snjóar allann ársins hring og það er alltaf dimmt og ömurlegt. Svona verða þessar sögur til. Þetta sama fólk kvartaði og kveinaði þegar kom að flugstöðinni sjálfri, alltaf "Well well, no place to get some food, tsk tsk" eða "This is the most ridiculous baggage claim I have ever seen". Ég hristi bara hausinn og hélt áfram. Eitt sem mér fannst mjög skemmtilegt, ég fékk stimpil í vegabréfið mitt :) Ég kom inn sko á USA vegabréfi og þótt að ég talaði íslensku við gaurinn, þá náttúrulega verður hann að stimpla. Ég hef bara ekki fengið stimpil í einhver 10 ár.
Þegar hér far að komnu máli þá var mér farið að líða eins og að ég væri að lifa lífi annars manns. Mér fannst þetta allt svo súrrealískt, að ég skyldi vera kominn heim, og að allir skulu tala íslensku í kringum mig og ég bara hélt áfram að labba með undrunarsvip á mér, bara að bíða eftir að sjá hvað gerðist næst. M&p komu að sækja mig með einhvern langan og mjóan dreng sem kváðist heita Darri. Ég þvertók fyrir því að þetta væri litli bróðir minn, enda síðast þegar ég viss þá var hann lítill og svolítil bolla. En jú, við nánari athugun þá reyndist þetta vera hann, og um leið og hann byrjaði að tala þá þekkti ég hann á persónuleikanum.
En núna er ég bara heima, búinn að hitta helminginn af vinunum, búinn að fara út á djammið einum og hálft sinnum, og er bara að taka því rólega og hugsa um lífið og tilveruna. Hvað gerist núna, hvert fer ég í framtíðinni, hef ég verið of harður við ákveðna áðila, ætti ég að gera þetta eða hitt, eða ætti ég að hætta að hugsa, borða ógissla mikinn mat og drekka bjór?
Sjáum til...
En allavega, fyrir ykkur sem ekki vitið það þá er ég með gamla gemsann minn (695-2476), ef ég hef ekki nú þegar reynt að hafa samband, endilega bjalliði bara í mig.

2003-12-18T12:15:00.000-05:00

Ekkert margt að segja frá í dag, nema það að ég er á leiðinni upp í flugvél eftir næstum nákvæmlega 8 tíma. Víííiíííí!!
Legg reyndar af stað um 4 leytið, og Þóra systir mömmu ætlar að koma að sækja mig. Thank you Þóra mín.
Freyja systir númer 2 ætlar líka að hjálpa með því að geyma tölvuna mína og trompet, því lásinn á herberginu mínu virkar ekki.
Allavega, verð kominn til landsins eftir sirka 13 tíma. Og svo hvíla sig og svo beint út á djammið, hlýt að geta fundið einhverja sem vilja djúsa með mér.
Sjáumst heima!

2003-12-16T01:40:00.000-05:00

So their test is over.
We graded about half of the questions tonight, and they seem to have generally done well (of course my sections seemed to do a little better ;)) The students themselves also seemed to feel good after the exam, one of them even started whistling during the exam. A couple of guys from my section came up to me afterwards and shook my hand, thanking me for the semester, and I got a couple of sweet smiles from the girls :) One guy asked me for my email, and he sent me a letter just now, thanking me for the semester and stuff. I don't know why, but I'm just blown away by all this. They seem to have really liked me as a teacher. I sort of thought it would just be like "fine he's our TA" or something....can't quite explain it. I have this feeling...I guess it would best be called pride, in my students...I really wanted them to do well. I guess maybe they just felt that and responded.
Bunny (the lead instructor) had sent me the final this weekend and I took it myself this morning to make sure that there were no errors or ambiguities. Found a couple and had them fixed. She keeps on saying that she really means the students well, but the students really don't like her...I think they get some vibe from her. She says this, but at the same time she says things like "this guy doesn't belong here" or "you should really reconsider your major". And she says this in spite of the fact that she makes a bunch of mistakes herself. There are a handful of things taught in this course that are blatantly incorrect, and yet, when I pointed them out she first denied it, and then when I proved it she accepted it, but because it had already been taught incorectly to them, we were "not going to confuse them more". So I basically taught them the REAL stuff, while also teaching them the things they should answer on the quiz to appease Bunny. (it wasn't a lot, but enough to merit mentioning). The last straw (for my part) was when Bunny was talking about things she would have them do next semester. So she was talking about having them program a game and use AI for the agents in the game. So I immediately asked "are you going to use A*?" (pronounced A star. This is like THE search algorithm used in AI) She said "A what?" She had no idea what it was. So I explained it and she said "well, send me stuff about it." Yeah, like hell I will. That's exactly what the students need, for their instructor to learn A* wrong and then teach it to them....wrong.
Anyway, in spite of all that I felt a little sorry for her today. Right before the exam began, she tried to boost their spirits a little and said "good luck on the exam, and good luck with the rest of your academic career."
They booed her.
They obviously took this as a sarcastic remark, like so much else she has said, and when viewed in such a light, it can be construed as a unusually nasty remark. One guy even yelled back "good luck with your teaching career."
So now I'm just waiting on my evaluations (from students and from Bunny and JJ), waiting to tie up all the loose ends at school, and waiting to get home. It's funny, I don't feel like I've been away for 4 months, more like a couple of weeks, like a vacation. But I guess that's the way it always is...time keeps on slippin' (slippin', slippin') into the future. (Kudos to pabbi for the last tune, but can you get this one? :))

2003-12-15T13:54:00.000-05:00

Yeah baby!
Took my test this morning and did pretty good...considering I didn't study at all for it. There was actually one question which I couldn't answer because I had never learned it, so I just picked up the book (it was an open-book exam) and learned it :)
Went over the final my students will be taking in 2 hours. It took me half an hour to do all but the last question. It then took me half an hour to do the last one. I guess the idea is that the last question will show the difference between people getting an A and an A+. It was actually quite difficult, and although I did manage to answer it correctly, I didn't find the most optimal solution (although I might have if I had spent a whole nother hour thinking about it). Anyway, I did find a couple of points in the exam that were ambiguous and I spoke to the instructors and got them fixed, so hopefully there shouldn't be any problems in the exam.
So almost everything is finished for me here. I just have to proctor the exam, and then spend all evening grading it. Tomorrow I have a meeting with Reggia, Basili and Salasin about the story research, and then I have to write one 5 page writeup with the guys in my AI group and then I'm finished! From then on til thursday I'll just be cleaning up here and packing. And then a whole month back home, oh yeah! doooo ow ow, dundundundundun chick...chickichikaaahh (bonus points for anybody who can guess that tune ;))
Not that the holidays will be restful...nope, I'm gonna be working on a paper with my former advisor Björn Þór Jónsson, and I'll be reading up on the background material for the research next semester.

2003-12-13T22:26:00.000-05:00

Had my last lab on wednesday.
I asked my students whether they would like to have an extra review session before the exams and got very enthusiastic replies. They all said they would take advantage of that if I were to offer. So I set out to schedule that (on my free time, I remember how much I appreciated one of my teachers in HR doing it for us, so I figured, why not continue that habit. And I'm also a nice guy.). I set aside 6 hours today for them to come in and ask me questions (I told them to be prepared, I was not going to lecture, just answer specific questions.), and I set aside 6 hours to allow them some slack on when to come.
5 people showed up.
Count them! 5!! Out of almost 40 students I teach, and anothr 120 that aren't in my sections. That's pretty bad. Oh well, if they do bad on their exam, they're not getting any sympathy from me. So I basically just sat there and studied for my own final, answering a handful of questions from those 5 people. The actually just stayed there for most of the time, just studying quietly and asking me questions when they needed. It was nice. One girl actually brought me a pack of cookies :) I thought that was really nice.
Right now, I'm finding any excuse I can not to sudy. I've trimmed my beard twice, I went and bought some writable cd's and am writing a whole bunch of stuff, I talked to a friend of mine about relationships and how people are stupid, and I've invented a new way of picking my nose (involving a pair of headphones, a magic marker and a can of coke).
Oh yeah, and I'm exercising my self-restraint, trying to see how long I can refrain from popping a pimple.
Got some potentially bad news on friday. The weather prediction is bad for monday, and the school might be closed. My final is on monday. If the school is closed that means that the final is postponed. And it will be postponed to friday. After I leave. So I mentioned this to the teacher and she said that they should be able to figure something out in that case....For now, I just have my fingers crossed.
The RAship is pretty much in the bag, they've been sending me bunches and bunches of stuff to read, they're just still waiting for that letter telling them that the money is here and then they can officially accept me as an RA. Jim Reggia did tell me that if the money does not come in time, he would still accept me as an RA for one semester, but then I would have to do other things, because his grants cover other stuff. Hope for the money...
All sorts of stuff coming in the mail, people using me as their camel to Iceland :) So I'll actually be coming home with almost full suitcases. My family has ordered some american junk food so I'll be bringing some of that home also, at least the type that can survive a plane flight, like twinkies and hohos (actually I think they could survive a nuclear blast).
Let's see...what else....
Oh well...looking forward to seeing you guys! :)